


Maybe

by SquigglyAverageJoe



Series: Shattered Glass [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: Betrayal, Blood and Violence, Consensual Underage Sex, Denial of Feelings, Gay, Helluva lot of violence, Love, M/M, Oral Sex, Rainbows, like torture and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2019-10-17 11:06:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17559194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquigglyAverageJoe/pseuds/SquigglyAverageJoe
Summary: After the defeat of the Wind Mage Vaati and Ganon, and the demise of Shadow Link, the four Links try to lead normal lives, still four. Vio reflects often on his relationship with Shadow Link until he comes back—but something about him is off, and Vio doesn’t quite know what.





	1. Mirrors Suck

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I’ve ever posted to this site, but I thought it might be good so I decided to post some of this because it might be worth writing and maybe someone will like reading it. This story is a part of a series, but this is the first part of the first story in said series.

The only thing Vio wanted to focus on in the moment was the feeling of his lover’s mouth on his own.

It had been a long day for the purple clothed hero. He had woken up, fucked Shadow Link, faced Red, Green, and Blue and their anger, dueled with Green and almost killed him—although Shadow Link actually thought that he was dead—and then he had to hear all about how much Shadow trusted him. It had hurt, listening to the violet haired villain tell him all sorts of things he hadn’t told anyone else, talking about how much he trusted Vio, letting him in on his plans to defeat Vaati and take over Hyrule for himself, and when Vio had suggested they use Princess Zelda to take down Ganon so they could rule alone and Shadow grinned enthusiastically, Vio felt a small part of him die. “He’s using me,” Vio tried to convince himself. “If I helped him defeat them both, he’d off me when it’s all over and rule by himself.” He didn’t believe himself, but he felt like he should, but it was almost enough to make things easier on him.

Even worse was when Shadow would talk to him in private. All he talked about was how much he cared about Vio, how much he loved him and trusted him and wanted nothing more than to take over Hyrule with him so they could be together and be happy and everything would be awesome and he just loved Vio so much and after they were done burning down one of the towns, he’d take Vio back to their room and show him just how much he loved him.

And Shadow, true to his word, took Vio by the hand and dragged him up the stairs until they got to their room and then he locked the door and then they were kissing and Vio knew it was wrong.

He was a little confused by the fact that he was kissing a boy, if he was being honest with himself. He hadn’t known he was gay, though perhaps he should have known. But Shadow’s gender wasn’t what bothered Vio, him having sex with someone of the same sex wasn’t an issue, he was pretty sure Blue was gay, anyway.

The issue was, Shadow had a kill count of 394.

And the amount of people who had been injured by him—directly or indirectly—or ones who had watched people die or lost their homes to the fire from the dragons under his control weren’t countable.

Thinking about him made Vio feel warm and happy. Thinking about some of the things he had done made him shudder. 

So all he wanted to think about was the fastest way to get Shadow’s clothes off of him and all he could focus on was the hands on his hips and the warmth coming off of Shadow. Shadow was so warm. Unbelievably warm all the time, Vio didn’t understand but he didn’t care too much, it just made his lover’s touch that much more comforting. 

They couldn’t ever be close enough. Vio loved being around him, feeling vulnerable, but never weak, feeling happy. He just wished things had been different, that he didn’t have to hurt Shadow Link, but he knew deep down that he couldn’t let his feelings get in the way of his mission. 

While Shadow kissed him, Vio scolded himself for getting distracted and when Shadow was taking his clothes off and Vio caught himself staring at him and kissing back, he reminded himself that after they were done, he’d put an end to it.

And then Shadow fell asleep and Vio just stared at him for a minute, almost wanting him to wake up so he wouldn’t be able to do it.He didn’t want to do it, he realized, and Shadow’s whispered confession echoed in his ears, but he guessed it really couldn’t be a confession if he had said it so many times so loudly and openly. As Vio laid there, his lover’s arm around his waist, he heard Shadow tell him it all over again—“I love you.”

And Vio was starting to think that just maybe, he loved Shadow back.

He dressed quietly and stepped out of the room, locating the two objects he had seen earlier. A hammer and a mirror.

He was supposed to shatter the mirror. He wasn’t supposed to get caught. He wasn’t supposed to be knocked unconscious after Shadow found out. He wasn’t supposed to wake up in a dark cell having failed.

And then Shadow was there with his glowing blue eyes and Vio hadn’t ever felt worse in his entire existence. “Shadow, I’m—“

”I don’t want to fucking hear it,” he hissed. “How fucking could you? We were...I...you fucking traitor!”

Traitor. The word rung in his ears and his heart beat quickened. He wanted it to stop at the moment. “I’m sorry.”

His eye twitched and Vio knew he should have been silent, but how could he see how upset his love was and only respond with silence? “You’re sorry? I catch you doing the one thing I can’t let you do, trying to destroy the one chance I have to get rid of Lord Vaati, the one guy who could ever make my life even remotely worth living and I catch him stabbing me in the back, and all you have to say is you’re sorry? I will fucking make you sorry, Vio, you have no idea what you’ve almost achieved, you don’t even care what would happen to me if that thing gets destroyed, do you?”

”Of course I do.”

”No, you don’t! Because if you did, you wouldn’t have fucking done it in the first place! You don’t even fucking know what happens, Vio!”

”What happens?” He asked.

They locked eyes and Vio thought he knew, deep down, he knew. And that made him feel worse. “All of it, everything, it was all just lies, wasn’t it? You slept with me, you accepted the compliments, you lied to me...I said I loved you, I love you so much! Why did you do this?”

Vio didn’t answer.

”You never said it,” Shadow whispered. “You never told me, and I didn’t think much of it, I thought I was saying it too quickly, I thought you’d love me eventually...you don’t love me at all, do you?” He shook his head and looked ready to leave.

”Maybe,” Vio replied.

”Maybe?” Shadow echoed. “What the hell does that mean? What do you mean ‘maybe,’ it’s a simple yes or no question, you fucking—“ He didn’t finish.

”Maybe I loved you,” Vio said. 

”There shouldn’t be any maybe about this! I can’t believe you, you...it’s way too late to say any of that shit, it’s not like I can love you after this, Vio. You don’t even regret it, do you?” Vio stared at the wall behind Shadow, not wanting to meet his eyes. Without another word, Shadow turned on his heel and left Vio in his cell, probably deciding he didn’t want to see Vio until he was about to die.

But his question lingered in the darkness of his cell and Vio answered it, “Maybe.” How could he be sure of anything?


	2. The Date’s Changed by Three Weeks, but Reality Still Sucks, That Hasn’t Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three weeks have passed since Shadow Link sacrificed himself to take down Vaati and peace has returned to Hyrule—but the four Links have not put the sword back—nor will they ever. Not that it does any good, because the Four Sword is no help with the weird shit going on.

“I mean...I guess I always assumed that like, the four of you would go everywhere together?” Erune shrugged, sitting across from Vio at the wooden table.

He had grown to like Erune, really, but was she oblivious to all their arguing? Blue had literally dragged Green away from her by the ear because he had had a crush on her—or maybe he had had a crush on Green Bean, that would have explained why they both had had a bunch of hickies on their necks later? And Erune wasn’t a stupid girl.

Well, Vio thought. She was a little stupid, but not extremely so. She was rather charming, and funny, and pretty nice, good at listening. And she had basic common sense, that was good enough. She was also one of the only two queer people in the village—the other being her girlfriend, a pretty black girl in a white dress and wearing a red flower crown that she just...always had on her—and she really just needed someone else who was queer to talk to and she wanted to get to know Vio, so somehow she managed to write a letter and give it to the postman who had somehow known his house address and invited him to chat with her, because Vio’s gayness was known to all residents of Hyrule, somehow. No one really understood, but everyone knew, so Vio hadn’t really gotten a chance to ever come out. This was Vio’s third time coming to the village to talk with Erune, though, he was surprised to enjoy her company so much.

Erune herself had just come out, and it was a struggle—that was why Vio visited so often, in truth. Because even if people didn’t like him, they had some sort of respect for him, because he had helped saved Hyrule and even if he was gay and even if some did believe that that was wrong, no one could deny his heroic actions, so regardless of people’s homophobia, he was left alone and if he was seen with Erune, none of the homophobic villagers would bother her either. Poppy also liked to hang out with him, for the same reason, and although Vio thought Poppy was nice enough, he didn;t enjoy her company so much as he did Erune’s.

She was a year younger than him, probably fourteen while Vio himself was fifteen. She was pretty—with porcelain skin and a flawless complexion. Her dark hair was wavy and fell down to her collarbone, though he figured if she had straightened it, it’d be a bit longer. She had large green eyes and impossibly long, impossibly thick eyelashes—instead of blinking like a normal person, she batted her eyelashes every four point five seconds. She had tied a cobalt blue ribbon into a bow in her hair that matched the shade of her dress. Vio knew she was pretty, but he didn’t think it—it was knowing that she was attractive but not being attracted and a part of it bothered him.

It would have been nice, after all, to fall in love with a friend like Erune and just be happy, but instead he was gay and not attracted to Erune in the slightest. 

He suddenly felt very pissed at himself for being gay.

“Yeah, have you met us? We’re constantly at each other’s throats. One time, I nearly killed Green.”

“Well, that’s not very nice.” There was a brief pause. “Can you tell me more about this?”

Vio paused. He hadn;t thought too much before he said it, but now, he was thinking about what he just said—he nearly killed Green, back with Shadow. Oh, he could almost feel the boy’s arm around his shoulders, almost feel the warmth radiating off him, his comforting, loving touch. Suddenly, the guilt was overwhelming and a hand clamped around his heart, his chest being squeezed with a vice, his throat tightening, his tongue still and numb. He looked at the table in front of him and swallowed.

Erune frowned and rested a hand on top of his in an attempt to comfort him. She knew he sometimes got like this—it’d pass, he just needed a moment.

He took a deep breath.

“I’m so sorry, Vio, did I say something?”

“I just...don’t like thinking about what happened is all, I didn’t think before I said it and...some bad stuff happened and I feel really guilty.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I punched a girl once and I felt so bad, I nearly died.”

“Why did you punch her?”

She blinked. “She was acting like a bitch.”

Vio snorted. “That’s a good reason.”

He heard the door behind him open. “Erune?”

“Yes, mother?”

“I’m glad you’re having fun with your friend, but I’d appreciate it if you weren’t holding his hand, you’re just too young to date.”

“Mother, I’m gay,” she said.

There was a beat of silence. “I completely forgot.”

“I can tell.”

“Well...ask your friend if he’s staying for dinner, won’t you? Oh, hell, he’s also gay isn’t he? Damn. Can’t remember a time where there had been more than one sexuality—everyone was straight some years ago.”

“With all due respect, ma’am,” Vio said, speaking up. “People were probably gay then too, and also bi, and pan, and not.” He could have listed every sexuality he knew, but sometimes adults didn’t even understand gay and straight, so he decided to stop before he lost her. “They probably just forced themselves to act straight and were unhappy.”

“Oh, no, you misunderstood—there is nothing wrong with people being gay, I just found it odd. If it makes you happy, please be happy, it’s better than being miserable and trapped in a loveless marriage with a man who makes out with other woman’s husband behind bars, only for other men to walk out and join in, all while their wives are at home, dealing with their children who don’t have any father figure in their lives and—anyway, nothing wrong with it, just a sign things change. It’s odd...anyway, Vio, are you staying for dinner.”

“Actually, I think I better get going, but thank you.”

“I’ll walk you out!” Erune exclaimed. Her mother left and she guided Vio towards the door.

“So, all that stuff your mother said...”

“Yeah, my father...wasn’t the best person. My mom always wanted to have a lot of kids—he hated me, used to stay out a lot, real late, came home reeking of alcohol, I guess. he had to stop because he was a danger to me and my mother, but he never stopped so she threw him out on the streets.” She bit her lip. “I don’t think he was actually gay—just a bad person trying to fill some void in his pathetic soul.”

“Jeez.”

Erune opened the door and held it for Vio, before stepping outside with him. “I was always so lonely as a kid—almost all the other children were ether much younger or much older than me—that’s why it was so great when you came and stopped all the weird stuff happening, it was so nice to see children my own age. Well, I mean, you guys are a bit older, but you’re the closest to my age. I don’t have to babysit you, and you don’t have to babysit me, it’s great!”

Vio smiled and shook his head. “You’re great.”

“Aw!” She smiled and pushed some hair out of her face before turning her head and looking at the girl in the yard of a nearby house. “It was nice of you to visit.”

“It was nice to visit, I assume you want me to go so you can flirt with Poppy before dinner?”

“Yes. Bye Vio!”

“Bye, Erune.”

The walk home was pretty long, but Vio was pretty patient. He had his book tucked under his arm and his sword on his back. They hadn’t put the Four Sword back because they felt there’d still be a chance they’d need it. They had all said they’d keep the sword on their personwhenever possible, so Vio hadn’t left home without it. He felt like it was kind of stupid though—most danger from Hyrule had passed and the area he was in himself was extremely peaceful, and yet, he was just walking through with a sword on his back, probably the only armed person for miles.

The sky slowly darkened, but it was still rather bright. It was the middle of summer after all, it wouldn’t get dark for a while.

Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw something and it made him stop in his tracks. It wasn’t necessarily what he saw that made him stop but what he felt. Something in his gut was tugging at him. He swallowed. He still saw it, he turned to get a better look, but no matter what, it was always in the corner of his eye.

He decided to hurry home and kept in mind that he had his sword. Maybe what he saw was a villager who was a little alarmed about the stranger walking alone with an extremely visible weapon. He didn’t believe it, but it was just enough to keep his thoughts at bay for a minute while he walked, quickening his pace. 

The thing was, ever since the end of their journey, Vio couldn’t stop thinking about death. It was rather morbid, and it tended to freak Red out a bit, but he couldn’t help it. He always was entertaining the thought, thinking about all the ways he could die, and sometimes, if his anxiety was just a bit too much at night and he heard a loud sound and din’t know what it was, he’d just assume that that was it and he was about to die. His mind took him back to the fire temple and he’d see Shadow Link, angry and betrayed, wanting him dead.

He had found they were flash backs, and most likely, he was somewhat...traumatized. He had been about to die, he had suffered a rather nasty head injury—he remembered bleeding heavily from the temple, but when he regained consciousness, tied up and about to die, he wasn’t bleeding—and he had almost killed Green. And then later, he had to watch Shadow die. So, it made sense he was so obbsessed with death. He didn’t want to die, exactly, but he still thought about it, a lot.

He saw it again and the faster he walked, the larger the object got, just in the corner of his eye. He couldn’t make out what it was, but the feeling returned and he wanted to go over to it. It occurred to him he might know what it was.

Not an it, but a he.

He felt his face flush with embarrassment as if he had been caught thinking it. He felt stupid. Shadow was dead, dead, dead, why couldn’t he realize that? He wasn’t about to show up, alive and well and happy to see him. There was no way to bring him back. He was dead. No way around it.

He swallowed, but before he could take another step, he felt ice cold metal on the back of his neck and warm breath on his ear. “Don’t move.”

He instantly stiffened, more out of shock than anything. He could no longer hear breathing though, and whoever it was didn’t speak again. He still felt the cold on his neck, but when he carefully turned around, he saw nothing. He reached for his sword, but his hand grasped air. And then whoever it was returned, resting a hand on his hip and placing the blade in front of his throat. “I thought I said not to move.”

His heart was pounding. He recognized the voice.

”Vi, I’m even armed, you have to listen to me, or I have to hurt you, it’s not a difficult concept.”

”Shadow,” he breathed.

He tried to turn, but he kept him in place. “No...if you turn around, I’ll cut your throat, I told you not to move, Vio.”

”What are you...?”

”Shh...it’s okay.” The hand on his hip was removed. “You just need to obey me, when I tell you to do something, you have to do it.” He stroked his cheek gently with the back of his hand and Vio struggled to hold still. “Hush...don’t even think about screaming.”

”Sha—“

”No,” he said harshly. “Be quiet, Vio, I didn’t say you could speak, did I? ...Well, answer me!”

”No...?” His breath caught in his throat when Shadow’s hand moved from his cheek to his chin and turned his head. He felt Shadow kiss his cheek softly.

“Vi...My Vi...All mine...” He whispered, before kissing him again. He seemed to be really enjoying himself. He stopped eventually, nuzzling Vio’s cheek and then pulling away all together. “Where are the others?”

Vio almost answered, but there was some nonexistent voice in his head telling him not to, and that made him hesitate.

”Vi? Are you going to answer me?”

”Why would you want to know that?” He swallowed.

”Vi, just tell me, I don’t want to hurt you!”

”You’re holding a sword to my throat.” He exhaled slowly.

”Oh, Vivi, where are they? I just want to pay them a visit. I love you, don’t make me hurt you!”

”I’m not making you do anything, you’re the one threatening me.” He felt Shadow shove him to the ground, but he caught himself. He started pacing around him while he was on the ground, on his knees.

”I am still pissed at you, you traitor.” Vio swallowed and looked at his palm that had some dirt on it and a minor scrape. He didn’t have his bow on him, he hadn’t thought to bring it, he didn’t even really think he needed his sword. He did have that one knife tucked into his boot, though, that his father had bought him what felt like ages ago, just in case he had to have a concealed weapon on him.

All of a sudden, he was staring at the point of the sword and that snapped him out of his thoughts. “Were you ignoring me, Vi?” He shivered, and apparently that was enough for Shadow to realize he hadn’t been listening to a word he just said, Vio hadn’t even realized he was talking. “I asked you a question—are you going to answer it?”

The thing with knives though, Vio realized, is they’re close range. He was going to have to get Shadow Link close to him to use it—but did he really want to hurt Shadow Link? He was threatening him, but it was Shadow Link, it was Shadow! It was his Shadow! While he debated whether or not and how to use his knife, his question still went unanswered, and Vio still didn’t remember the question. He swallowed. “What did you ask again?”

”No, no, no, Vio—you heard me perfectly. You know damn well what the question was—are you going to fucking answer it?” He was quickly getting more angry and Vio didn’t know what he had asked and wasn’t sure how to reply.

”Did you ask where the others are?” He asked, still unsure.

”No. But you can tell me that too.” He felt Shadow drag the point across his throat gently and that was enough to get his heart racing. “It’s a simple yes or no question, Vio, I do not appreciate being ignored.” His knuckles were white with how tight his grip was on the handle of Vio’s sword, and he decided that he better just choose ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or Shadow was probably going to stab him with his own sword. 

”No...?”

Shadow exhaled slowly. “You...You son of a bitch!”

He had barely seen Shadow’s hand move, but all of a sudden, his chest was stinging and his tunic was torn. He wasn’t bleeding severely, though. Shadow was pacing around him still. “What the hell do you mean ‘no?’ I thought, I thought you...” He shouted in frustration and for a minute, Vio thought he was going to slash at him again. “Fucking bastard! I’ll-I’ll kill you!”

”Shadow, I didn’t hear the question, I—“

”No, no, no! Shut up!I don’t want to hear your excuses, I don’t care! Just shut up!”

And all of a sudden, his blade was in his chest and his tunic was soaked in blood. He tried to say something, but it came out as something akin to a gasp, a choke and a sob.

He sounded like he was dying.

Shadow fell to his knees in front of him, his hand still on Vio’s sword. He looked into his eyes, Vio looked back, but he found no emotion in Shadow.

He placed a hand on his cheek and stroked the side of his face with his thumb as he hummed. He pecked him on the cheek and giggled. “Love you, baby. I forgive you now.”And then he yanked the sword out and dropped it in front of him.

When Vio woke up, he was laying face down on the dirt path, he had his sword on him, and he was uninjured, but he was still laying in a puddle of blood. Also, there was a hand on his back.

”Vio?” Said a soft voice that wasn’t usually so soft.

He groaned and sat up. He felt ice cold hands on his hands and when he opened his eyes, he struggled to see, everything was blurry.

”Are you okay?”

He squinted his eyes shut and tried to think. What was he doing there? Was that just a dream? Was Shadow still dead? ...Why had Shadow called him ‘baby’ in his dream, what the hell?

He opened his eyes and tried to will his vision to clear. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine...”

”There’s a shadow.”

His vision cleared immediately and he looked at who he was talking to. She was about his age and was almost as tall as him with long, slender legs visible beneath her dress which was ripped and shredded. She had dark brown skin and pale silver hair cut short, framing her face and falling into her eyes. Vio had never seen her eyes, there was actually a rumor in her town that she had no eyes, at some point he had managed to piece together her mother had been abusive and absolutely wrecked them. She couldn’t see with them and they were all scarred and, as she had said herself “disgusting to look at,” so she covered them with her hair. He was pretty sure Erune had seen her eyes though. Whatever worry that the person he was talking to was dangerous melted away—it was only Poppy. “What?” He said.

“There’s a shadow...in the forest, it grows, seeking you, calling out your name—do not approach it. He means you harm.”

“He? You mean Shadow?”

“Yes, it is a shadow.”

“No, his name is Shadow and he wouldn’t hurt me.”

“The shadow is not who you think it is,” she shook her head. “He will hurt you, he will try to kill you, he will try to break you.”

“Poppy, you don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s nice, he’s good, I love him.”

“He doesn’t love you.”

Poppy said all sorts of weird things, and sometimes she’d rhyme for no reason too. This wasn’t all that odd for her to say.

“What are you doing out here?” Vio asked.

Poppy shrugged. “I’m leaving now. Be safe, you grape.”


	3. Well, I Mean, I Assume You Wanted Some Vidow Since This Is a Vidow Fanfiction You’re Reading, So...Here:Vidow.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio tries to get home, but is stopped and wakes up in an unfamiliar place—with a very familiar voice calling out for him.

The walk home wasn’t any fun. He kept tripping, someone was tugging at his hair, someone was throwing things at him, he’d look over his shoulder, he’d try to see if there was anyone nearby—but he never found anyone.

 _Am I paranoid?_ He wondered.

Then he felt fingers wrap around his ankle and he tripped again, bashing his chin on the ground. Worst of all, home wasn’t that far away, but it didn’t seem like he was gonna get there alive if he kept falling.

He made a move to get up, but a hand grabbed his wrist and refused to let go. The hand was dark and cold, black in color and...dripping? As if someone had covered it in ink and it was coming off.

Vio tried to pry the fingers off of his wrist, but it didn’t relent. “Knock it off already!” He shouted, and then the hand let go, and Vio wondered if it was ever even there. He got up slowly, only to feel breath on his neck.

He took a deep breath. “Shadow...if that’s you, please tell me.”

He didn’t move, there wasn’t a sound and he didn’t feel anything. He sighed and kept walking.

He felt two hands on his back before he was shoved to the ground. Whoever his attacker was, they were fast, and the grabbed his wrists quickly, holding them firmly with one hand while the other grabbed his sword. He felt a hard blow to his temple, and then the world went black. Vio didn’t have time to struggle—and he didn’t see who it was.

Vio groaned as he opened his eyes. For a moment, he just laid there, his body aching, his head pounding. he laid on his side, and he was staring at a grey stone wall that matched the floor he laid on and the ceiling above him. His body protested all movement and he moved slowly to his feet, trying to think. Where was he? Hadn’t he been on his way home?

He looked around. There was no doors he could see, or windows, but there was a stone staircase that spiraled upwards. He would have stayed where he was for a minute if he didn’t hear a voice.

_”Vio...?”_

He found himself running up the stairs as if his life depended on it, not hesitating for a moment. He didn’t know where the voice came from but above. But he knew who the voice belonged to.

It was like he was running through water, he’d never get there fast enough. He tripped, his knee crashing onto the stone steps and his hands barely stopping his head from colliding with the floor. The voice continued, shouting his name, calling for him.

He scrambled to his feet and kept running up the stairs. “Shadow!” He called.

There was no answer, the voice was silent. He felt panic rise up into his chest—he had never realized how desperate he was to see Shadow, to hold him close, to murmur apologies and sweet nothings alike in his ear, to tell him that yes, he had loved him, he did love him, he was so madly, irrevocably in love with him and he always had been. He made himself calm down and then kept running. He’d figure out leaving once he found Shadow, they’d leave together.

It felt like forever before he reached a door at the top of the stairs, the only door he had found. He stopped right in front of him, trying to regain his breath. For a moment, he wondered—was Shadow the reason he was there? What was it Poppy had said earlier? That he was evil?

But the truth was, Vio didn’t have many options. There hadn’t been much but stairs and this one door—he really only could enter. He’d figure out if Shadow was evil later. _But he wasn’t going to be, because Shadow hadn’t been evil to begin with._

The door opened smoothly and silently, revealing a room that was large but pretty empty and drab. The floors were grey, along with the walls and ceiling, just like before, but there was a decent sized bed against the wall and a large window that showed a twilit sky. Vio’s eyes drifted towards the bed, which wasn’t grey. Instead, it had a wooden frame and headboard, the mattress clad in white, a black blanket folded at the foot of the bed.

And Shadow laid on his back, fully clothed, in his usual white tights, black tunic and boots, standing out on top of the white sheet. He was covered in dark glass and blood was all splattered over his face and dripped off of one of his hands which was hanging off the bed.

”Shadow!” Vio shouted. His eyes snapped open and Vio was suddenly running towards the bed.

Shadow sat up, using his bloody hand to push himself up, leaving a red stain on the pristine sheets. “Vi...?”

”Oh, Goddesses, Shadow!” He wasn’t sure what to do, he looked carefully at the injuries all over him, eyeing each and every one—a cut on his brow, it looked like, some skin was torn on his palm and he had a black eye. Now, Vio couldn’t stop looking at Shadow’s blue eyes, his large, perfect eyes that someone had bruised. He didn’t look ready to keel over and die, but the fact that he had blood on him jarred Vio.

Vio placed his hand on Shadow’s jaw and looked him over, looking at the bruise. Shadow leaned into the touch, closing his eyes.

”Oh, Shadow, I...” He couldn’t find much words to say. “I’m _so_ sorry, I love you, I...I never got a chance to tell you, and tell you how sorry I was, I’m so sorry...I...You’re covered in blood!”

”Don’t worry, Vi,” he said, calmly. “It’s not mine.”

The calm in his voice disturbed Vio. “What?” He asked, looking at the blood all over Shadow. He took a step back, but all of a sudden, Shadow grabbed at his hands and looked at Vio with large, pleading eyes.

”I forgive you,” he said, suddenly.

Vio wasn’t sure what he was hearing or seeing anymore. “What?”

Shadow got up and threw his arms around Vio’s neck, connecting his lips with Vio’s in a romantic, sweet kiss. Vio practically melted. He grabbed at Shadow’s hair, slicing his palm on a shard of glass that had been resting on his head as he desperately pulled him closer, not wanting the kiss to stop. Blood trickled down to his forearm and he was probably getting it on Shadow, but he didn’t care at the moment, too caught up in how impossibly warm, impossibly soft his lips were.

They separated at last, Shadow’s arms still around Vio’s neck, Vio’s hand still cupping his cheek and for a minute, they just stood like that, looking into each other’s eyes. Then Vio’s thumb felt something wet and warm on Shadow’s face, and he realized that Shadow was covered in blood and had just admitted that the blood wasn’t his own.

He pulled away and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve. Had Shadow bitten him? His lip was bleeding. “What do you mean that’s not your blood?” He asked.

”It’s not mine, Vi. I’m not hurt.” He blinked, he didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Can we get back to kissing?” He wrapped an arm around Vio’s waist and leaned forward until their noses were touching, though not their lips, as if he was hoping Vio would close the distance.

”If...it’s not yours...then whose is it?” Shadow frowned, disappointed they were not kissing. “Shadow...did you hurt someone?”

He kept his arm around Vio’s waist, but brought his hand up to his face, cupping his cheek. “I love you,” he said. “I love you so much, and I forgive you. You know that?” He pressed his mouth to his cheek, trailing kisses down to the side of his neck, gently.

Vio placed his hand on Shadow’s chest and pushed him off of him. “Who?”

”Some girl,” he said, rolling his eyes. “The one you hung around.” He saw Vio’s pale face and somehow thought that the color draining form his face meant he didn’t understand. “You know, dark hair, green eyes, kind of pretty, actually.”

”Erune? You hurt Erune?”

”Yes, that’s her name! Oh, don’t worry, she’s still alive, Vi. I didn’t kill her.”

”What did you do to her?”

”I asked about you,” he said. “Where you lived, she wasn’t sure who I was talking about, because I was’t sure if she knew your name, so I just described you as a blond, sexy little thing with his nose in a book. She agreed that you were ‘kind of cute,’ so I had to do something.”

”Why? What did she do?”

Shadow kept going, ignoring Vio’s questions. “You know how I looked like you, right before I smashed the mirror?” He didn’t stop for an answer, he already knew the answer. “That’s what I did, I hurt her looking like you, she thinks you did all that horrible stuff to her.”

Vio took a step back. “You’re...”

”Oh, don’t look at me like that, Vi! She’s fine! I barely even hurt her, you know, just a couple bruises and cuts and I left her alone. Now, her girlfriend’s a different story, but she’s alive too.”

”Why would you do something like that?” He asked.

”Honestly...”Shadow’s voice lacked an edge, instead, it was gentle. “I don’t really know, it made sense at the moment. Don’t worry, love, I won’t hurt them again if it means that much to you.”

”Why...am I here?”

”Don’t you want to be? Didn’t you miss me?”

”I missed you before you hurt Erune and Poppy for no reason.”

Shadow yawned. “You don’t have to miss me anymore! We’re together!”

”I...I need to get back to the others.”

Shadow didn’t seem to hear him. He examined his fingernails and started talking again. “You know, Vi, back in the Fire Temple, after your betrayal, I really didn’t want to kill you. Honest, I swear. I was angry, and I wanted to do all sorts of things to you, but I didn’t want you to die. And now, I’m all alone with you, and I regret thinking all those mean things about you, and considering all those actions to take. I was...really going to do something bad to you. I’m glad I didn’t.”

Vio swallowed. “What were you going to do to me?”

”Lots of things...like...do you know what water boarding is?” He drummed his fingers on his knee, studying Vio. 

Hia gulp was audible. “Yes...”

”Oh, don’t worry! I won’t do that to you, unless you _really_ misbehave.”

”Shadow, I need to get back to the others.”

”Sorry, Vio, but that isn’t happening. I just got you back—your mine. You can’t leave. You’re welcomed to try if you really want to, but you aren’t leaving.”

Deep down, he knew it wouldn't work, but he had to try. But the knob refused to turn in his hand and the door didn’t open. It was closed and it would stay closed. Behind him, Shadow laughed as if he enjoyed watching Vio’s desperation. “I told you you aren’t leaving.”

Vio turned around to face him, his heart pounding. “Shadow, please, let me go.”

”Why would I do something like that now? Don’t worry, you know I won’t mistreat you—do you have any idea how much I love you?”

”If you love me so much, you shouldn’t be keeping me here,” Vio said, trying to calm the racing in his heart. He really shouldn’t panic, he needed to collect himself.

Shadow frowned, standing up and moving towards him, so he could run a hand through his hair. “Why not?” He asked. “It’s not like I’m about to hurt you.” He traced patterns on Vio’s jawline with his fingers, and found himself stroking his neck gently, admiring every last inch of skin he could see. He licked his lips, thinking about how great it’d be if Vio started returning those gentle touches.

”You could, though,” Vio said, swallowing. “You want us to have a relationship, right? A long, healthy, romantic relationship?” He tried not to shiver at the contact.

”Of course I do.” His voice was as soft as the look in his eyes. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life.” He stroked Vio’s cheek with the back of his hand.

”I do, too, but...keeping me here, against my will isn’t going to start a healthy relationship. There’s an obvious imbalance of power, and you’re saying right now you won’t hurt me, but what if you change your mind later? And you can easily hurt me, and I can’t get away.”

”You could hurt me too.”

”I could, but you’re able to leave. If I can’t leave, you can do whatever you want to me. Again, it’s an imabalance of power—you want me to love you back, right?” Shadow nodded. “Then you should let me leave. We’ll work things out, and...we can be happy together.”

Shadow blinked. “I see...Well, I still won’t let you leave just yet, but I’ll try to read up on relationship shit and we’ll work this out together. I want you to be happy, Vi.”

”Then you should let me leave.”

He sighed. “I just got you back, and I know, the minute you walk through this door, you’re going to run away from me.”

”I shouldn’t have to run, though,” Vio argued. “You shouldn’t be scared of me running, I shouldn’t—“

Shadow leaned forward and pressed a finger to Vio’s lips. “Shh...You aren’t usually this talkative, you know.” He might have been about to say something else, but Vio bit his finger and whatever he was going to say was replaced with a swear word and he pulled his hand away.

Vio wiped his mouth with his sleeve, but he still felt blood on his lips. “You aren’t usually covered in blood, you know.”

Shadow laughed. “Neither are you, but look at you!” Vio briefly looked down and gasped at all the blood on him, most likely from his short makeout session with Shadow. “Even covered in blood, you look perfect.” He cupped his cheek. “I know you want to stay, Vi, so just...stay.”

He noticed Shadow was leaning closer to him. “I don’t want to, though.”

”You can’t fool me anymore, Vi...I know what will convince you to stay.” Shadow smirked, licking his lips. “Come here...”

Vio flinched, as if Shadow was about to punch him in the face, which he kind of did—he punched him in the lips with his own lips gently. It was short and sweet—Shadow moved from his mouth to his cheek and jaw, and then down his neck, nibbling on his collar bone and tracing little patterns over his clothed midsection. Vio moaned, fisting shadow’s hair to pull his face up, connecting their lips again.

”Mm, you’re that easily convinced, huh?” Shadow murmured when he pulled away, fingers fiddling with Vio’s belt buckle.

His face went red. “I never said I was convinced—kissing me isn’t going to make me agree to stay in a place I can’t leave.”

”Oh, you’re staying no matter what, Vi...I’m just gonna make you enjoy it.” He slowly took it off of Vio, watching him blush. “And I’m gonna do a lot more than kiss you.”

”Having sex with me isn’t going to—“

Shadow placed a finger over his lips, silencing him. Vio didn’t bite him this time. “Don’t worry, I’ll make this good for you, love.” He kissed him again, quickly before letting the belt drop to the floor. He grabbed at Vio’s tunic, yanking it over his head, while at the same time, guiding him towards the bed. The purple tunic was thrown somewhere Shadow paid no attention to. He pressed kisses to every inch of his exposed chest, straddling Vio’s legs as if he was going to get up.

”Shadow!”

”You need something, love?” He smirked at his love’s form, running a hand down his side. “You’re always so much hotter than I remember you being.” He cupped Vio’s face again and kissed him lovingly. “Any requests, my darling?”

Vio drew in a shaky breath. “Stop.”

Shadow frowned. “What was that?”

”I want to stop. Now.”

”But...I...Okay, Vi, I’ll stop.” He got off of him, running a hand through his hair, still admiring his body but not touching him. “Did I do something?”

”Yes!” Vio got up, trying to fix his hair and locate his clothes. “You’re just lucky I didn’t punch your goddess damn lights out.”

”Blue’s been a really bad influence on you, love. That’s almost as much as a turn off as you revoking your consent.”

”I never gave you my consent!”

”Oh, Vi, I’m sorry—I’ll ask then next time, I thought you were liking it. Next time, I’ll make sure you’re begging me for it, okay?”

Vio didn’t answer, trying to secure his belt on his body, not looking at Shadow.

”You were kissing back! I thought that meant you were liking it!”

”Shadow, I need to get back to the others.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not letting you leave, Vi. I love you too much.”

”If you love me, you’ll let me leave. Shadow, please—“

His reaction was sudden—he grabbed Vio by the front of his tunic and yanked him close until he could feel his breath on his cheek. “Vio,” he said. “I do love you—I love you so much, I’m not going to slam your head into the wall to get you to shut up. This isn’t up for discussion—you’re staying. Now shut your mouth before I consider this ‘really misbehaving.’ You’re staying—do I make myself clear, Vi?”

He nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. He did not see the anger rising in Shadow’s eyes until it was too late.

Shadow scoffed and let go of him, making him fall on the stone floor. He made a move to get up, but Shadow pressed his heel on his chest. “I swear to the Goddesses, if you move, I’ll strangle you until you stop breathing.”

So, he didn’t move. He stood still and watched Shadow shake—with rage?—and take deep breaths. When he stopped, he looked down at Vio with a lot more love in his eyes. “You can get up now, darling—I don’t think I’ll kill you for it.”

Vio moved as slowly as possible until he was sitting instead of laying. Shadow stroked his cheek gently with his thumb. “I love you, darling,” he said. “I’m sorry—I just got angry.”

He grabbed Vio by the tunic again and kissed him gently. “Please don’t be angry,” he whispered. “I have to, otherwise you’ll leave.”

”Have to what?” Vio asked, but black spots began to dance in his vision. He was unconscious before his head hit the floor.


	4. Reflections—ha, Get It? Because Later In the Chapter...I Should Be A Comedian.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio reflects on his and Shadow’s screwed up relationship and tries to figure out a mean of escaping.

_Vio was sitting on a bed, leaning back on pillows, his book in his lap. In the back of his mind, he noted how hard and uncomfortable the bed was, and he found himself shifting constantly, as if hoping he could get comfortable. He was reading the same book he had been reading for the past two days, he had to reread it, because at the moment, he didn’t really have a place to go to to get another. He was so caught up in the story, he didn’t notice Shadow Link’s presence until he already sat at his side, resting his head on Vio’s shoulder, his hair tickling his jaw._

_He started when he felt it, but Shadow didn’t comment on it. “What’chya reading, Vi?” He asked._

_If Vio was honest, he was struggling to look at Shadow—it was a lot more than just the night before, it was also the fact that he had kidnapped his childhood friend and he had no idea where she was. It was the fact that he made all the people in Hyrule Castle disappear like a very twisted magician. And it was the night before—that was just straight up embarrassing. Vio never would have guessed he’d be so vocal, or have a hair kink, or that he’d end up losing his virginity to someone who meant to plunge his home in darkness. Everytime he heard Shadow’s voice, his face flushed in equal amounts of shame and anger, the anger mostly directed at himself. He felt that maybe, if the other members of his team weren’t a bunch of assholes, maybe Shadow wouldn’t have approached him like that, and then he wouldn’t have had to sleep with him! “A book,” he responded._

_”What type of book?” He could hear the smirk in his voice, even though he didn’t look at him. There was no way he could look at him. What if he saw the hickies on his neck? Or Shadow saw the lovebite on his shoulder? What if they met each other’s eyes? Vio was almost certain he’d die from the humiliation of it all._

_”Not the kind you’re thinking of, obviously,” he said, with a scoff that made him sound unimpressed, like he didn’t care about Shadow. It made him sound like a jerk, but he could live with that._

_”It’s okay if you’re reading porn, Vi, I won’t judge. Even if it’s some hardcore yaoi. I feel like you’d be into BDSM.”_

_”What?”_

_”I mean, you seem like the type who secretly reads porn with a bunch of bondage, and role play, and a lot of toys. Probably some s and m in there. That’s okay, that sounds hot. I could see you, jerking off to a picture of a guy, all tied up with a ball gag in his mouth.” He must have noticed how scarlet Vio’s face grew, because he kept going, pressing himself closer to Vio and twirling a strand of yellow hair in his fingers with a lustful look in his eyes. “Probably on all fours. In a dog collar.”_

_”I don’t masturbate,” Vio said, but there was a small squeak in his words. He was just going to keel over and die, just drop dead, because he was so embarrassed right now._

_”Well, you did last night.” His smirk had turned into an all out grin and Vio made the mistake of looking at him—their eyes met and although he looked away immediately, he knew Shadow had seen how flustered he was and he had liked it._

_”You weren't about to finish me off.”_

_”Was too, but you needed to cum and you needed to cum now. It was actually so cute, you know. Your hand around your cock, touching yourself...” Vio was pretty sure he saw Shadow’s hand disappear in the front of his tights. “I’ll make you cum tonight, okay? You don’t have to jerk off—I’ll touch you.”_

_”You aren’t even that good with your hands,” Vio said, his face still red. He was going to get a nose bleed if this kept up, it was a miracle he didn’t get a nosebleed the moment Shadow looked at him, he expected his nose to just suddenly gush out blood like in anime._

_”Oh, really? I’ll put you in my mouth, then. How does that sound?”_

_”Not good if you can’t make me cum.”_

_Shadow was messing with Vio’s belt now. “I’ll have to tie your hands to the headboard then—to make sure you don’t give yourself a handjob while I’m trying to suck you off.” Vio’s nose started to bleed, but Shadow didn’t notice. “Or should I tie them behind your back? Mm, I’m gonna suck on you so hard...you’re gonna cum in my mouth, I bet you taste like grape soda.”_

_”What?” It came out as a squeak. Shadow seemed to think that was a turn on._

_”I said I’d think you taste like grape soda. You gonna let me find out? Let me get a drink of your—hey, your nose is bleeding.”_

_”I noticed.”_

_”I’m sorry, but red is not your color.”_

And of all the things that Vio heard before he woke up, it was that.

Now, he was in somewhere grey and boring, but he couldn’t be bored, instead, he was admittedly, a little scared by what was happening. One of the few things he could think of that wasn’t blurry in his mind was Shadow threatening him. He sighed—Poppy had been correct when she said that he was evil. He didn’t seem to have any sort of sanity. Vio blamed himself for that, for some reason. Maybe he went about everything wrong—Shadow had been good, he had seen the good inside of him in every intimate moment they shared. But when he had grabbed him by the tunic and the warm breath on his cheek made him feel frightened instead of turned on, he had searched frantically for that bit of good in Shadow’s eyes—and he hadn’t found it. And that scared him way more than when he had knocked Vio out.

Actually, that was a lie. Being knocked out scared him a lot more.

His every movement hurt and made some sort of metallic noise. He sat on his knees, his back against a wall and his wrists in chains that connected to the wall behind him. He was in the same room he had been in before, only chained up, and Vio kind of understood why Shadow had to knock him out—he would have fought him every step of the way, and clearly, Shadow didn’t like it when he fought him.

He thought back to his dream, blushing. He swore, he could almost feel Shadow’s hair on his jaw and cheek, tickling his skin...

...and moving down to his neck...and then back up to his forehead. He realized that whatever it was had been crawling, and there was many of whatever it was all over him—on his back, in his hair, on his side, underneath his tunic, and one on his knee. He made the horrible mistake of looking at his knee.

He found a spider, it’s legs glossy looking, its body shiny as it stared at Vio with it’s many eyes. Vio moved, as if trying to move away from his own knee, but his hand found something sticky and dry—spider webs. He was covered in spiders, he realized, shuddering.

Vio possessed an intense fear that was almost irrational. For some reason, they freaked him out. Once, when he was reading next to a tree, a spider fell in front of his face, dangling from a thread and he had put down his book and pressed his back to the tree, sitting petrified, staring at the tiny little spider who he swore had the audacity to wave, although no one believed him. He sat like that for three hours until Red came to his rescue, not at all scared of spiders.

Vio didn’t move a muscle for who knows how long. Eventually, the door to the room opened and Shadow entered. Vio didn’t wonder what he had been doing or where he went, all he could think was, _spiders are all over me._

Shadow felt himself smile when he looked at Vio on the floor, sitting on his knees, staring at him with eyes wide enough to drink from. He loved him so much, and although he didn’t exactly enjoy seeing Vio in chains, something about the knowledge that Vio couldn’t leave comforted him. “Nice to know you’re up, Vi,” he said, grinning. He had cleaned up. There wasn’t a speck of blood on him, nor any shattered glass.

Vio didn’t say anything as a spider on his cheek moved closer to his mouth. Shadow chuckled. “Made some new friends?”

”Get them off of me,” he said quietly, before closing his mouth quickly. The spider was still, but Vio was still freaked out.

Shadow sighed. “I don’t know, I’ve been doing an awful lot for you lately—I had to clean all that blood off of you, you know, Vi. But I wouldn’t ever bathe you without your consent or undress you, or anything else—I had to take a rag to your face and wash your hair, and then get you back to sleep when you woke up, because the minute you woke up, you tried to fight me, and I had to shove your head underwater to get you to stop struggling...and then I had to chain you up, and fight the urge to throw you out the window.” He gestured to the window with a red sky that didn’t indicate how much time had passed. He sighed. “You’re high maintenance.”

”Shadow, pl...”He didn’t finish—the spider crawled onto his mouth and goddesses, he was going to pass out, there was so many spiders. He knew it was irrational because he knew the spiders on him weren’t poisonous, but he didn’t care.

”Tell you what, Vi.” He got closer, and knelt down, looking into his love’s eyes. “I’ll take all these spiders off of you, but you have to do me something.”

 _Like what?_ He tried to ask, but he was not opening his mouth, there was a spider on him.

”I want a kiss,” Shadow said. “On the mouth.” He pulled the spider off of Vio’s lips with his right hand, and then traced them with the fingers on his left. “I want to know how much you love me, I need you to reassure me that everything I’m doing for you is worth it.”

Vio swallowed and risked a nod, as if movement would make the spiders suddenly murder him. If Shadow said he needed Vio to give him a hand job while singing the entire Hamilton musical, he would have done it, he would have done anything if it meant getting the fucking spiders off of him.

He saw the spider in Shadow’s hand, he held it by one of his legs between two fingers, and it dangled sadly in the air, reminding Vio of that one spider Red saved him from. He found himself thinking about Red—why all of a sudden, though?

Shadow snapped his fingers in front of Vio’s face. “Come on, now, I want _you_ to kiss _me_ , Vio. Now pucker up and lean forwards before I shove this spider down your throat.”

After that horrible threat, Vio was a little too eager to kiss Shadow. Their teeth slammed into each other and Shadow’s hand found his waist. Vio was about to pull away, but Shadow pushed into him until Vio was squished in between him and the wall. Shadow dropped his hand to Vio’s thigh and squeezed it roughly. The gasp he made was just enough for Shadow to get his tongue in his mouth, savoring the taste of his lover. If it were up to Shadow, the kiss would have lasted forever but it ended much sooner than that as Vio suddenly bit down, tasting blood but feeling no pain, unlike Shadow, who felt lots of pain.

”Ow, son of a bitch!” He pulled away harshly and looked at Vio, who flinched at his glare, as if he was going to slap him. It took him a moment to decide he’d live, he still had a tongue, and swallow the blood in his mouth. “I should really throw this spider at your face and leave.”

”You didn’t let me breathe.”

”It’s not like you were going to asphyxiate and die from a kiss.” Shadow rolled his eyes and stood up, the spider’s leg still in between his two fingers. He dropped it, and once it reached the floor, he crushed it with his heel. “Nice to know you have a fear from spiders, I feel like I should know these things.”

”What you can use against me?”

He shrugged. “I meant more of details about my lover. Now hold still so I can get these off of you.”

It was a long process, getting every last bug off of Vio, and when Shadow was done and Vio sat surrounded by a bunch of crushed spiders, he realized that his legs had fallen asleep from his sitting on them.

And then Shadow was on his knees in front of him, yawning and cupping his cheek. “I love you too much, Vi.”

Vio wasn’t entirely sure if Shadow meant that, though. Shadow had really only had one friend and one lover in his entire life and both were Vio. Because of his whole, burning towns thing and serving Vaati, he wasn’t exactly popular. Chances were, Shadow was just as confused about his feelings as Vio was. Their relationship had been short and brief, and then, it was mostly just sex. They never really, actually talked about their future or their relationship because Shadow had assumed that there’d be plenty of time for them to talk about it. Vio hadn’t been able to tell him the truth—he had repeatedly lied to him, and hurt him, and he had found himself slowly falling for Shadow—he just needed to figure out what that meant and he never got the chance to. For a while he didn’t know why he was falling in love.

But he was charming, Vio thought. And loyal to a fault. And when he loved something, he loved it with his whole heart and every inch of his being. He had loved Vio. He had been head over heels when he got Vio in his bed, which was probably like, three hours after the whole forest conversation. Vio didn’t even know why they did that, actually, it had just been spur of the moment, he guessed. One minute, they had been on two seperate sids of the room, next, they were viscously making out and falling on Shadow’s bed, a tangle of limbs as they tried to rip each other’s clothes off.

Shadow snapped his fingers in front of his face again. “Vi, can you stop spacing out? Are you tired?”

Vio’s thoughts drifted towards the others. They didn’t know where he was did they? He almost shuddered. He could see Green pacing around, wondering where he was and Blue trying—and mostly failing—to reassure Red that no, Vio was not dead and he would be back, but yes, he was late and taking a while, but could you quit crying, he’s not dead, I swear.

”Shadow...I really need to get back to the others.”

”Ugh, this again.” Shadow ran a hand through his hair. “Can we drop this? For now, at least. I’m getting tired, Vio. Why don’t you spend the night with me and we’ll just relax for a while and we’ll talk about this tomorrow, okay? We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, I won’t even look at you if you don’t want me to, Vi.”

”You have no intentions of ever letting me leave.”

”Then why waste your breath trying to convince me?”

”Shadow, please, they have to be worried sick.”

”Good. I hope they get sick and die. They can eat their damn hearts out—you’re mine.”

Vio thought Shadow was done, but he started monologuing. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for you? And now, you’re here, I’m going to love you, and protect you, and you don’t care about any of that, you just care about finding some way to escape.” His hands found Vio’s chains. “I love you, Vi. Okay? But the moment I take these off of you, I know you’re gonna run, and if I have to chase after you, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist the urge to kill you. It’s for your own good, love.

”Shadow, please, get these chains off of me. We can find the others and...we’ll be happy with them.”

”Vio,” He said, softly. “I love you more than anything else—but I remember what you did, my sweet. I don’t trust you.”

”I thought you forgived me?”

”I have, but I haven’t forgotten, how could I ever forget? Maybe you forgot though—or did it never really bother you?”

His heart was breaking—because he knew he’d never find a way to escape or because Shadow could never forget the horrible, horrible mistake Vio made? “Of course it bothered me,” Vio said. “It kept me awake at night—you kept me awake at night. I could barely live with myself, and the moment I realized I was near you, I...Shadow, what we had was unhealthy—“

First, Vio just heard it. The loud sound of skin hitting skin—then his face stung.

”Shut up,” Shadow seethed.

”Shadow—“Vio tried again.

”SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!” Vio flinched and moved backwards, but he was already against the wall. Another spider crawled onto his hand, but that didn’t scare him nearly as much as Shadow was scaring him. “I swear to the goddesses, you say a damn word, I’ll cut your fucking tongue out.” He got to his feet quickly, eyes glassy and face scarlet with rage.

”You’re...” He just shook his head, furious. “Argh!”

”Shadow,” Vio tried, all of a sudden desperate for Shadow to listen, to understand.

He didn’t get another word out. He suddenly grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed the back of his head into the wall behind him. Vio felt blood trickle onto his neck. Stars seemed to dance in his vision, he felt dizzy. “What did I just fucking tell you?” He pulled harder, hurting his scalp. All Vio could respond with was a pitiful whimper. Then he let go, letting Vio curl up in the corner, staring at him. He didn’t say another word before he left the room, leaving Vio all by himself.

His face still stinging, the back of his head still wet, torso covered in crawling spiders that he swore multiplied every minute, he tried to think. Shadow was angry, and Vio had a feeling he wouldn’t be so angry had he not betrayed him. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he found himself standing in front of the mirror, wielding a mallet, and he barely understood what he saw in his reflection. He had hurt Shadow...He knew how intensely Shadow had loved him, he told him constantly, but Vio meant to destroy him like he was nothing, barely knowing. What if he had sat Shadow down and explained everything to him? That Vio had meant to betray him but simply loved him too much to harm him like that, that he knew Shadow was good and that they shared something special, and if Shadow helped him defeat Vaati and Ganon and free the maidens and Princess Zelda, they wouldn’t be able to rule the world, but they’d be able to be happy? Would Shadow have declined? Would he have still tried to kill Vio? Or would he have helped him and the others establish peace?

Worst of all, had that one guy not shown up and startled him, Vio would have gone through with it. He had realized it once Shadow appeared, unaware what he narrowly escaped and when Vio looked at the mirror, seeing himself about to bring that hammer down, he had been horrified at the expression on his face. He looked so dismissive, he looked like he didn’t care.

Vio sighed—because he knew that he had a chance to get away from Shadow, but he was going to have to do that one thing that probably had Shadow acting this way.

He was going to start obeying Shadow. He would let Shadow touch him and he’d touch back, and he’d apologize for his behavior, and he wouldn’t bring up the others, and he’d do everything it took to keep Shadow sane and happy, he’d make him trust him.

And he’d wait for a chance to get away.


	5. Here’s a Fun Game: Everytime You See The Word “Spiders,” Take A Shot, On Second Thought, Don’t, You’ll Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio nearly sleeps with Shadow—who might not be dead—only for him to leave for some reason, making Vio contemplate their relationship even more than he already has.

Shadow Link didn’t quite understand why, but ever since the Dark Mirror shattered, he’d been experiencing sudden shifts in his mood, constantly. He had gone from bawling his eyes out and moaning out Vio’s name, to shaking from pure rage, wanting nothing more than to find Vio and carve his stupid heart out. When he actually saw Vio, there was another one of those moods—he’d yearn for contact and love, and no matter how much Vio returned his feelings and touches, it’d never be enough, and he just wanted to gaze in his eyes forever, and ever.

It had turned into a nasty cycle. One minute, he’d be crying and depressed, then he’d be violently angry, and then he’d be so unbelievably lovesick. When he was crying, thinking about Vio made him cry harder, when he was angry, only daydreams of torturing his love calmed him down, and nothing could save him from his lovesickness. Nothing. But, he wasn’t stupid, he had noticed that all of these thing had to do with Vio. And in the back of his mind, Shadow agreed with every plea Vio gave him to go home, Shadow knew what he was doing was wrong, and his poor, poor love, having to be subjected to his rage.

But he didn’t have any sort of control over himself anymore and among the three, horrible, strong emotions he felt, he felt another on top it all—fear. Dark and awful, and now, constantly present. It worsened everytime Vio acted out and he found himself hurting him, but also, everytime he left, as if he worried Vio wouldn’t be there when he came back. But he’d never tell Vio what he did when he left the room, what was more important than spending time with him.

He felt guilty, in the back of his mind, he knew Vio hated him. That he thought he had been evil this entire time, and what he was doing proved he truly was.

So, naturally, he was _thrilled_ to find out that Vio didn’t think that all.

 

The spiders came back, Vio realized, waking up. He had a surprisingly deep sleep, even though every bit of him hurt and there was a chance Shadow was trying to kill him. They crawled all over him, but his fear of spiders was almost nothing compared to his fear of Shadow’s wrath. _Almost_ nothing.

He swallowed and stared at the bed he saw. He could see Shadow, laying on his side, knees pulled to his chest like whenever he slept alone. Even that night, when Vio left to go break the Dark Mirror, the _second_ he got out of bed, Shadow had curled up into a ball, as if needing some sort of warmth, some sort of contact that really, only Vio had given him. 

“Shadow?” He whispered, wondering if he was awake.

He was not. But Vio decided he wanted to stay on Shadow’s good side, so he just bit his tongue and tried to remind himself that the spiders all over him were almost definitely not poisonous.

He didn’t have to wait long, though, thankfully. Shadow stirred in a matter of minutes, before slowly sitting up, rubbing at his eyes. Vio just wished he didn’t catch himself staring. Shadow looked cute half-asleep—how many times had they had conversations when one of them was moments away from falling asleep? How many times had Vio fallen asleep to Shadow whispering about how much he loved him? How many times had Vio woken up to those glowing, blue eyes looking at him? Not much, admittedly, but enough to be remembered, more than once. If only it had been much more, if only they had had more time.

The first thing Shadow did when he woke up was go to Vio, kneeling down in front of him and cupping his cheek. “Morning, love. Did you sleep well?”

“As well as I can sleep covered in spiders on the floor.” Which, shockingly, was pretty decent.

Shadow gave a weak smile. “Be nice to me and I’ll let you sleep on the bed tonight.”

He tilted Vio’s face and pressed his lips against his cheek. “You’re perfect,” he said.

“I’m covered in spiders.”

“Yeah—sticking you next to all those spider webs was a bad call. I’m sorry, Vi.”

“The amount of spiders is uncanny—did they come back to life?” He glanced where he last saw the dead ones—they were still there, still dead.

Shadow grinned. “They seek revenge.”

Vio knew Shadow was joking, but it freaked him out.

Shadow yawned, running a hand through his hair, no longer touching Vio. “I probably slept as good as you did, Vi.” He rubbed at his eyes again. His rest had been fitful, and he kept thinking about Vio, and how upset he must have been with him. “You must be so angry with me—I had no right to hit you like that, it won’t happen again, love, I promise. I was just upset...I missed you, you know, and you kept talking about the others—it made me feel like you didn’t love me.” He sighed.

”Shadow,” Vio started, but once again, he put a finger to his lips.

His smile was gentle and sad. “No, Vi, you have every right to be upset with me. You aren’t my property, you’re my lover, I shouldn’t be hurting you like that, that was uncalled for. You don’t hit _me_. I completely understand if you need some time to think.”

Vio grasped his wrist gently, pulling his finger away from his mouth. “I’m not angry,” he said. “I...was being...rude. I missed you, too...I was just concerned over how my teammates were faring. But I don’t want to leave, Shadow. I don’t want to leave you.”

His face brightened. “You don’t?”

”No, not at all. I mean...”He wanted this to be realistic, he wanted Shadow to buy it. “I really do want to see the others,, but now, if I had to choose between them and you, I’d pick you, always you.”

Shadow frowned. “You didn’t choose me before.”

”And that was a mistake,” Vio said. “It was a horrible decision. I mean, it wasn’t just them, though, It was Zelda, and our father, and everyone in Hyrule—it was you and then everyone else I cared about. I...I didn’t know you’d...die.”

”But you’re going to stay now?”

”Yes,” Vio said, swallowing hard. “I’m staying. Because I really did miss you and...I loved you...and...” And he had no other choice.

Shadow leaned forward, connecting their lips and cutting him off, which Vio was actually thankful for. He had no idea how he was going to end his sentence. This time, their kiss was gentle and sweet, and even though Shadow’s hands were roaming his body, that seemed to be because he was pulling spiders off of him.

”Vi,” Shadow started, his fingers tracing his jawline. “If I get these chains off of you, are you going to try and escape?”

”No,” Vio said. _Not yet, anyway._ “I won’t escape.”

Shadow sighed. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” He seemed to pull a key out of nowhere and grabbed onto the chains that bound Vio to the wall. Vio tried to be patient while he unlocked them, and tried not to just run for the door the moment they were off. He rubbed at his wrists, and Shadow just watched him. “If you do try to escape, you better make sure I don’t catch you, or you’ll die in these chains, my love.” Vio shivered.Shadow got up slowly. “I’d love to spend more time with you, but I have things to do.”

”Like what?”

”I can’t tell you.” He grabbed onto Vio’s hands and pulled him to his feet, kissing him warmly. “You be good while I’m gone, okay?” He frowned at the insects crawling all over him. “And you make sure you don’t lie down in my bed covered in spiders.”

Without another word, he walked to the door and left, leaving Vio completely alone.

He had to will himself to take the spiders off of him, and multiple times, he made some weird, fearful noises as his fingers came in contact with them, but finally, they were off and Vio laid down in Shadow’s bed. That was what made him realize how much his back hurt.

 _What now?_ He wondered. He tried to come up with at least a fraction of a plan, but he had nothing. Absolutely nothing. He tried to focus, to compartmentalize all the fear rising up inside of him, because if he lost control of his emotions right now, he’d never gain back control and with the control he’d lost, his mind would probably come with.

He took a deep breath. He needed to make sure what he did was convincing, so he couldn’t act head over heels in love like Shadow right now. He still had his dagger in his boot somehow, even though his Four Sword was gone. And he didn’t have his bow. But hopefully, he wouldn’t have to knife Shadow to escape, he didn’t want to hurt Shadow. _Does it qualify as Stockholm syndrome if I loved him beforehand?_ Vio wondered. He pulled his thoughts away from that and tried to focus on the task at hand. What had he done before that made Shadow trust him?

Slept with him.

Vio sighed. The idea of hurting Shadow like that hurt him, but nearly as much as it was clearly going to hurt Shadow. _It’s his own damn fault,_ Vio thought. _I don’t want to do this, but he is literally holding me captive._ As if on cue, the door opened and he heard footsteps.

”Why’s the sky red?” He asked. 

”The sun’s setting,” Shadow replied simply. “Or, maybe it’s rising. It’s been this way for a long time.”

He sat down on the bed next to Vio and very slowly, intertwined their fingers. “Goddesses, I love you.

His gaze actually made Vio uncomfortable, but he tried not to show it. “I love you too,” he said quietly.

”Oh, Vio, love! You mean that?”

He swallowed. “Yes.” And all of a sudden, Shadow was pressed up against him in a hug, one of his hands cradling the back of his head, the other resting on his hip, the arm around his waist. His breathing seemed off, and Vio could barely breathe in the embrace. “Shadow?”

”I love you so fucking much...” And then they were kissing, and Vio felt all flighty and dizzy and _good_ , and he thought about how weird it was to feel good being held captive by his dead ex.

The pulled away, and Shadow looked guilty. “I’m sorry, I should have asked—you just looked so perfect, I had to. Can I kiss you again? Please?”

He was still breathless—and there was still something crawling in his hair. “Take this spider off of me and you can kiss me a thousand times.”

Shadow didn’t need to be told twice and in moments, his body was pinning Vio’s to the bed, and Vio couldn’t breathe—and then he realized—as the final spider was thrown off of him, at a wall—Shadow wasn’t breathing. Hesitantly, he put two fingers on his neck, searching for a pulse.

He found nothing.

Shadow kissed every last bit of his face and then cupped his cheeks with his hands, looking into his eyes. “Something wrong, love? You’re eyes are all big.”

”You...don’t have a pulse.”

His skin suddenly felt cold on his skin. Shadow frowned. “Is that a problem?”

”Yes!”

”Okay, then, darling, I’m sorry—here.” He grabbed Vio’s wrist and placed his fingers back on his neck and closed his eyes. After a moment, Vio did feel a pulse—Shadow’s heart was going quickly and loudly. “Is that better, my sweet?”

Vio had no idea what to say.

Shadow just laughed. “I wasn’t sure what you were going to do, so I didn’t want to be around you alive—you can’t kill me if I’m dead, Vi.”

”Oh,” he said. “I see.”

”Vi, you’re still so pale.” He moved some hair out of his eyes and hesitantly leaned forward, sniffing his hair, gripping Vio’s shoulders.

”You can just...do that?” He asked. He wasn’t sure what to do. He could feel Shadow breathing on him, inhaling the scent of his hair, which really, probably didn’t smell really good.

”Yes. I’m some where between life and death, I guess. And since apparently you don’t like me dead—“ Possibly just to mess with Vio, he seemed to shift back to dead—his skin went much paler, his eyes glassy, and something about him just...off, something about him that Vio could just barely sense greatly disturbed him. He went back to living(?) and laughed. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t try to kill me—I’m sorry, love, I think I have some trust issues, I’m trying to work on them.”

”Does...that mean you can die?” Vio asked.

”Yeah—only when I’m alive, obviously. Why?” His expression seemed to go blank—he didn’t seem as happy. “Planning something?”

”No, it’s just that...” Vio tried to find a way to recover. “I don’t know what you’re doing. When you leave. It’s nothing dangerous, right? You aren’t about to get yourself killed?”

Immediately, his expression changed. “Aw, Vi, are you worried?”

”Well, since I can’t leave, I’d like it if you stayed alive to keep me company.”

”But you don’t want to leave, do you?”

”If you die, I’d like to.”

He nodded. “Fair enough—if I die, you can leave, I promise.”When he pulled away, he yawned. “I slept so horribly—you wouldn’t be upset if I slept just a little bit, would you, Vi?”

Vio paused, thinking very hard and very quickly. He placed a hand on Shadow’s thigh. “Only if I can sleep with you.” He squeezed it gently.

”Vi...if you don’t lift your hand off of me, I might want you to move it somewhere else.”

”Please,” he said. He moved his hand up Shadow’s leg and saw his eyes darken. “I want this.”

”Yesterday made me think the exact opposite.”

”I-I’m sorry, Shadow, I was just upset! I love you, I want this, I want you. More than anything else. I love you.”

”Mm, say that again, Vi.”

He swallowed. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was acting anymore—was his act-possibly-not-an-act working? “I love you, Shadow. A lot. More than anything else.”

He grabbed a fistful of Vio’s hair and yanked hard, crashing his lips onto his and grabbing at his tunic desperately. “I love you so much,” he pulled away to say, only to slam his lips back onto Vio.

There was a hand on his back, slowly sliding down. Vio knew it was coming, but he still jumped when he felt Shadow’s hand slide a bit lower than his back.

”You still got an amazing ass,” Shadow said, and Vio heard him lick his lips. He threw Vio down on the bed, on his stomach and cupped his clothed thighs with his hands. “I swear, every bit of you is just perfect—it’s like you were made to turn me on.” He yanked off his belt and threw it somewhere before pulling his tights down to his knees, along with his boxers. Shadow let out a low whistle and cupped one of the cheeks. “Absolutely perfect. I could stare at you for hours.”

”Please don’t,” Vio replied.

“You know, you’re very pale back here. It’s adorable.” He pinched a cheek and then just shoved a finger inside Vio who promptly gasped and squirmed. “I can’t tell you what’s more perfect about you—your tight little ass, your giant dick, or your gorgeous face you make when you cum.” He moved his finger a little more.

”My personality?” Vio offered, still squirming, especially as Shadow found a spot he really liked.

”Vi, of course I like that more—I just meant physically. I think I’m going with your face. Oh, and the way you moan.” he shoved another finger inside Vio and went silent when he groaned quietly. “Like that. Did you enjoy that, Vi? How about another finger?” Vio moaned beneath him, his face beginning to redden as Shadow scissored his fingers, shoving that promised third finger in there. “Good boy. Doesn’t that feel good? I could have given this to you the other night if you acted a bit nicer.” Vio squirmed. “If you want me to stop, say it now, because if I go much farther, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop for anything.” He shoved another finger in there, as if wanted Vio to take his entire hand.

”Shit,” he breathed. “No...keep going.” Was this to gain Shadow Link’s trust or was he just horny? These were the questions. He saw a spider on the ceiling.

Shadow did not need to be told twice. He moved his fingers until he found a spot that made Vio make a really nice sound. “You’re still so tight. Does this hurt?” He slammed into that spot again—Vio made some sort of gasping noise that was also a moan and a muffled swear. “Oh, _fuck_ , Vi—if you keep being so hot, I might just start fucking you right now. Don’t you want this to be good?” He pulled his fingers out and patted him on the ass. “You have any requests before I just start doing whatever the fuck I want?”

Vio’s entire face was red.

”Oh, come on, don’t be so shy—what do you want? A quick handjob, I bet you’re really hard right now? Do you want me to pull your hair? Do you want some toys, maybe a dog collar? Oh, I think you want a little head. Is that it? Well, Vi, is that it?”

“Y-Yes...”

”Yes to all of that?” Shadow grinned. “We’ll start with some head, okay, baby? I’ve been meaning to deepthroat you for a while.” He made Vio sit on the bed, his feet on the floor, legs spread. “You keep your hands behind your head or I won’t let you cum, alright, love?”

He had the most genuine love in his eyes as he looked at Vio, his hand on his knee. Vio could feel his breath on the most sensitive part of his body, but then—

There was a loud crash from somewhere outside the door Vio hadn’t been able to escape from. Something was cracking and breaking, very loudly. Shadow pulled away, the love in his eyes disappeared. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he said, getting up from where he kneeled in front of Vio.

”What was that?”

”Nothing you should worry your lovely head about,” he cooed, kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be right back, this won’t take long, love—just, just give me a moment and stay right there.” He had started to back up slowly as he spoke until his back hit the door and once he was done talking, he turned around, threw the door open and disappeared, the door shutting behind him by itself.

Vio waited a brief second before he pulled his tights up and considered running, reminding himself Shadow was insane and could easily hurt him. But he decided against it—what if he ran into Shadow while he tried to find a way out? What was it Shadow had said? That if Shadow caught him running, he would die in those chains?

Vio glanced at the mentioned chains in the corner, crawling with spiders. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. If he did what Shadow wanted, he’d find a way to escape, eventually. Hopefully.

He waited about five minutes for Shadow to come back, and he had to admit he was embarrassed about what he had been doing right before then. He had been going to sleep with Shadow willingly, they had been—

He remembered the fire temple. That had been willing, too. Everything he had done with Shadow was willingly—it was never forced on him, but it would have been better had it all been forced on him, because then, he could hate Shadow, he could let himself hate Shadow, but no—he was in love with him, and now he couldn’t hate him, even though he was holding Vio captive. He hoped he’d come to his senses—but he had a horrible feeling Shadow wouldn’t.

After those five minutes, though, Shadow came inside again and slammed the door shut, panting. “I’m so sorry, Vivi...I had to do something real quick.”

He swallowed and forced himself to nod. “What were you doing?”

”Something important I can’t tell you about.” He sat down on the bed next to Vio and kissed his earlobe gently. “I’m sorry, Vi, I’m so tired, I’m not really in the mood to suck you off right now. You aren’t upset, are you?”

He shook his head. “No...I’m tired too.”

Shadow smiled and laid down on the bed, wrapping an arm around his waist and resting his head on Vio’s chest. “I love you so much. You’re perfect.”

Vio wasn’t sure what to say in response, so he said nothing. He considered pretending to sleep and wait until Shadow was asleep to try to escape, but if he pretended to sleep, he’d actually fall asleep, and as tired as Shadow claimed to be, he didn’t seem to be in any rush to sleep, gazing up at Vio lovingly.

 _At least I’m not sleeping on the floor again,_ he thought, closing his eyes.


	6. Um, Here, Have Some Poorly Written Sex and Violence, this Might Disgust You.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio and Shadow have sex and Vio escapes, bringing an end to Maybe. ...But why is there more chapters?

Shadow didn’t give a damn about himself when he was around Vio. His own body meant nothing to him, the only thing that mattered was Vio, he loved him so much that his chest ached. There was a void inside him that only Vio had managed to fill, and his skin and bones was just stuff surrounding that void. If he was being honest with himself, Vio could do anything to him and he’d be okay with it, so long as Vio was there, so long as Shadow got a chance to feel like he could earn Vio’s love.

Something about Vio being in his bed felt right.

 

Vio didn’t open his eyes immediately after he woke up, at first, he tried to process everything. Shadow was next to him, warm and still, and he wasn’t covered in spiders! He also somehow knew he hadn’t been asleep for long.

And then Shadow moved a bit, and he realized that Shadow was actually still awake. 

_Okay,_ he thought. _Maybe he’ll fall asleep soon...and I can try to leave?_ He remembered his knife in his boot. His knife...At that moment, he realized that he wouldn’t really be able to escape without waking Shadow up—but if he used his knife, he wouldn’t have to worry about Shadow waking up. His heart beat a little faster and he was suddenly unsure of what to do.

He heard Shadow sigh. “You couldn’t have undressed yourself before you fell asleep?” There was a hand near his hips, undoing his belt. Vio’s heart started beating faster. He realized what Shadow was doing—was he going to take off his boots? What if he found the knife? He remembered how Shadow had mentioned his trust issues before—he’s just assume Vio planned on using that knife on him, wouldn't he? Vio _was_ Planning on using that knife though.

He pulled his belt off and placed it on a table nearby. He felt Shadow start unlacing his left boot—where his knife was. He tried to think of something.

“Shadow...?” He whispered, opening his eyes.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at Vio. The love in his eyes showed he hadn’t seen the blade. “Hey, love—you awake?”

He moved a bit, and moved his legs away from Shadow. “I wish I wasn’t. What are you doing?”

“I’m just taking your belt and shoes off, Vi,” he said, quietly. “I didn’t think you were that comfortable, I wasn’t going to do anything else, I swear.”

“I can undress myself, Shadow.” He swallowed. He couldn’t act hostile, but he didn’t want to act scared either. 

“Well, then, go ahead, undress yourself.”

He swallowed again, but his mouth felt dry. Shadow was gazing at him, absolute love in his eyes—that would disappear if he saw the knife Vio had. Not to mention, he didn’t feel comfortable taking his clothes off in front of Shadow. He loved Shadow—but he was a psycho right now, and Vio wasn’t entirely sure what he was capable of. And he didn’t want to know what Shadow was capable of.

“Oh, come on, Vi. I’m not gonna have my way with you the moment I see some bare skin—I have some self control. I just know you don’t sleep fully clothed. Though, usually when I saw you sleep, you had no clothes on.” There it was, that smugness that felt so familiar to Vio, that made Shadow seem like himself, just slightly less crazy. “Come on, Vi, at least your boots.”

He turned himself so his back was to Shadow and his legs hung off the side of the bed, his feet on the floor. He kicked his left off slowly—and quietly pushed his knife under the bed with his foot while he pretended to unlace his right boot. The moment he did that, he felt arms around his neck and breath on his ear. “I saw that, you know,” Shadow whispered. Vio’s body went rigid in his grasp, his breath caught in his throat. He heard Shadow giggle like a child given a new toy.

He was pulled back on the bed, laying down. Shadow straddled his legs again and grinned at him. “Do you have any other weapons on you I need to know about?” He stroked Vio’s cheek with the back of his hand, but the loving touch freaked Vio out even more. “Should I frisk you? Oh, what about a strip search?”

He would not have thought Shadow would be _excited_ to find a weapon on him.

Shadow was already patting Vio down, his hands touching every part of his body but really making sure he searched around Vio’s crotch, as if maybe he shoved a knife in his tights.

“And here I was, thinking you were going to be good for me,” Shadow said, tugging Vio’s tunic up. “Guess not. You naughty thing, Vi! Do I need to punish you?”

He felt his face grow warm. He didn’t have any other weapons and he had a feeling Shadow knew that, but Shadow was too busy groping Vio to seem to actually care about that minor fact.

He hissed in a breath when Shadow started stroking him through his tights. “Oh, I’m definitely feeling something hard there. What do you have for me, Vi, hm?”

He looked at the wall, he didn’t want to look at Shadow. “It was just the knife.” His voice came out as a whisper, embarrassed and quiet. He hated the fact he was actually enjoying what Shadow was doing to him.

“Oh, really? Then what’s this right here, love? Honestly, Vi—this keeps up, I won’t be able to trust a fucking word you say, you damn traitor.” He tugged Vio’s tights down without another word.

He forced himself to look at Shadow—who appeared utterly fascinated by his crotch. “Shadow?”

”Yes, Vi?

He leaned towards Shadow and connected their lips firmly. Shadow hesitated but grabbed onto Vio’s hair and cupped one of his thighs. Vio hated to admit it, but the next few moments of making out and desperately grabbing at each other was actually thoroughly enjoyed by them both. When he pulled away, the salty tang of blood on his lips—did Shadow bite him?—he looked into Shadow’s eyes and realized how much he loved him. He had loved him before, he still loved him—but why did he have to be so fucking crazy?

”You’re so fucking perfect,” Shadow breathed before the hand in Vio’s hair jerked his head in a position that exposed his neck so he could suck on the flesh. Vio moaned and wrapped his legs around Shadow’s hips.

He tried to clear his mind—Shadow nipped at a certain spot and he wrapped his legs a little tighter until he heard him growl and start sucking again—and decide what to do. He wanted desperately to stay in the moment, with his arms around Shadow, Shadow’s mouth all over him, but he had to leave, he couldn’t stay, he wasn’t going to and Shadow wouldn’t let him leave. What had first been simply nipping at flesh had become biting, full on biting. Shadow was taking mouthfuls of his neck and biting down so hard, his teeth dug into his skin, blood dripping down his lips and sticking to Vio’s skin.

”I love you,” he said.

He pulled away for a minute, moving one of his hands onto his shoulder and the other to cup Vio’s face. He looked him up and down, as if to take in his appearance—hair mussed over by his hands, lips and neck sticky with blood, thighs and dick exposed with his tights pulled down. “I love you too, angel.” He kissed him again, much more gently, but that wasn’t saying much.

”Hey, Shadow...?”

”Yeah, love?” He started pulling off Vio’s tunic over his head.

”Do you remember...” He took a deep breath—this hurt him. “...back at the fire temple?”

”Oh, I remember everything from the fire temple, Vi!” He stroked his chest and pinched his nipple. “What time specifically are you thinking about?”

He gasped for breath. “...Sometime after our first time...I was reading, we started talking about porn.”

Shadow groaned. “Oh, I remember that. You were so fucking hot! Even with your nose gushing blood—holy fuck.”

“You remember when you brought up bondage?”

”Yes...”He saw Shadow lick his lips. “You want me to tie you up, love?”

”Actually...I was thinking I tie _you_ Up, love.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, Shadow’s face reddened in a way they hadn’t really before. “Oh? Vi, my darling, you really into that stuff?” He started stroking his dick, his eyes ever leaving Vio’s face.

”Uh huh, don’t you think that’d be fun?” He squirmed and tried not to moan too loudly. He threw his arms around Shadow’s neck and kissed him gently. “Unless you’re not okay with that? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Shadow paused. “I should have a rope under my bed. If you’re really into that.”

”Oh, I am—but again, Shadow...” He kissed his earlobe. “If you don’t want to, we don’t have to. It’s just...I’m so _horny,_ Shadow. I know I was acting like a prick the other night, but yesterday made me so hard—but you were so tired.”

“Oh, love, you could have jerked off, or you could have told me, I would have jerked you off!”

”But you were tired.”

”Vio, I don’t care if I haven’t slept in three days and five minutes after I fall asleep you’re bitch slapping me awake to blow you—I’ll get you off, sexy.”

”I just didn’t want to bother you.”

His hands cupped his face. “The ropes under my bed. I’ll let you tie me up however you like if you promise to fuck me really hard.”

”Is there another way you’d want to be fucked?”

”Oh, I don’t care too much, so long as you’re the one doing the fucking.” He placed a wet, long kiss on his cheek. “Get the rope now, love.”

Vio moved slowly. He could feel Shadow’s eyes on him—he was actually going to let him do this? Shadow was going to be okay with being tied up while Vio had free roam of the room. Despite the fact he was trying to make it look like he was in no rush, he was worried Shadow would back out, or realize what Vio was doing.

Vio tried to think about what was going to keep Shadow the most immobile—after a moment of consideration, he placed his mouth on his and started to pull his clothes off. It took all his willpower to not keep kissing Shadow and fall back on the bed, a moaning tangle of limbs. He managed to bend Shadow over and grab onto his wrists, pulling them behind his back and binding them with rope.

”Damn...” Shadow squirmed slightly. “I never would have guessed you could be so...kinky.” He could hear him lick his lips. “Oh, tie those knots a little tighter, Vi! ...Oh, fuck, Vio.”

There was no way Shadow was going to be able to get out of his bonds. Technically speaking, Vio could just grab his knife, aim for the heart and leave him to bleed out—but there was something keeping him there, something that made him hesitate. And that something had managed to flip himself over while Vio was distracted, and wrap his legs around his waist, bringing him closer.

”What’chya thinking about, angel?” He practically sang.

Vio licked his lips and forced himself to smile. “You.”

”So, what are you going to do to me now that I’m all tied up?” He tried to bring himself closer to Vio. “You gonna touch me? Fuck me? Blow me? Make _me_ blow _you_? I wouldn’t complain, love—I could take you in my mouth, if you force it in there.” Vio grabbed onto Shadow’s hips and brough him closer so he could suck on his neck. “Oh, Vio!”

”I love you,” Vio whispered into the crook of Shadow’s neck, dreading what he was going to do. History seemed to be repeating.

Shadow was overjoyed when Vio said those three little words. He had said them before, he was definitely going to say them more, but his delight always grew when Vio seemed to return his feelings. He didn’t care that he had rope around his wrists, or that Vio was hurting him, or that he was beginning to bleed just a little bit—all he cared about was Vio, nothing was more important than Vio.

”Oh, there! There, Vio—harder! Fuck!” He clenched his fists but was unable to grab onto anything. He fought the urge to close his eyes—he wanted to look at Vio. He studied the way his hair fell in front of his eyes and committed this moment to memory, every last detail—the feeling of Vio’s cock in his ass, the sight of Vio’s flushed face, the way he held onto Shadow’s hips. He wrapped his legs tighter around Vio’s waist with every good thrust, which was basically, every thrust. He didn’t understand how Vio could make him feel so good, how he managed to make Shadow feel he was about to burst when Vio was only half way in. _The moment he unties me,_ Shadow decided. _I’m going to suck on his nipples. I’m going to pull his hair. I’m going to hold him so tight. I’m going to ride him._ He moaned again as Vio started to slow—his love must have been close!—and started jerking him off. He screamed out Vio’s name when he climaxed and his fists unclenched.

”Oh, Vio, you’re so perfect,” he said, when he was done panting. His hands grabbed onto Shadow’s shoulders and pulled him into a sitting position before his arms wrapped around him. Shadow managed to press his nose into Vio’s hair, but what he really wanted was to wrap his arms around Vio’s neck, to be closer to him. He squirmed a bit more, wanting the rope off. He kissed Vio again. “Love, can you untie me? I want to hold you.”

Vio didn’t respond. His eyes were covered by his hair and Vio didn’t push them away. Shadow wanted to push them away, he wanted to cup Vio’s face and tell him how gorgeous he was, how he couldn’t believe someone so handsome existed. “Vi?” He peppered his neck in kisses and started sucking on his collarbone. Vio’s hands went to his waist instead. _Catching his breath,_ Shadow tried to convince himself. 

Slowly, Vio placed him back on the bed, laying on his back, his hands still tied. He fisted the sheets with his growing frustration as Vio slowly stood. Vio was so perfect! All Shadow wanted to do was hold him and caress him and love him!

Shadow again tried to reassure himself. _Maybe he wants a round two? Or maybe he’s getting dressed?_ Maybe he was shy, suddenly. Then Vio crouched down to grab something.

When he stood back up, the knife glinted in his hand and Shadow’s heart skipped a beat. He made himself sit up, which was slightly difficult with his hands still tied behind his back—oh, why had he let Vio tie him up? As fun as that had been, Shadow was going to pay dearly for his fun, wasn’t he?

”Vio, love,” he swallowed. “Put that knife down. Untie me. Please.” He started panicking—Vio was serious, he was seriously going to stab Shadow. “Vi, did I do something?”

”I need to get back to the others.”

”No, no, you can’t! You can’t leave me! Please, Vio, I’ll do anything! Oh, goddesses—put the knife down!”

He did no such thing. He got closer.

”Vio, please don’t, you don’t need to do this.” He was embarrassed by the whimper in his voice, but he was terrified. What if Vio left?

”Will you let me leave?” He asked. “If I untie you and sheath my knife, will you let me go back and rejoin the others?”

He hesitated. Then shook his head. “No. You’re mine.” He saw the look on Vio’s face, a grimace. “I’m not letting you leave, you’re _mine!_ You can’t leave me, Vio!”

”You do realize that you can either let me leave or I can just leave without you, right?”

”...You won’t, though.” His voice was shaking but he knew he was right, he had to be right. “You won’t kill me. You failed before.”

”I wasn’t trying to kill you then.”

”Doesn’t matter. You won’t. You can threaten me, and wave your knife around—but you won’t stab me or anything.” Because technically Vio could just leave him there, restrained. How was he going to get to Vio with his hands tied?

But he knew how his lover worked. The truth was, if Vio didn’t kill him, he’d most likely die eventually, alone, tied up. And Vio knew that—killing him now would be an act of mercy technically, and there was always a possibility of Shadow escaping, of finding Vio.

”You’ll never find the way out,” he said. “You’ll get lost and you’ll die. Whatever part of hell you’re sent to, I’m going to be waiting there!”

Vio grabbed his hair gently and pulled him closer. The blade was small, but sharp. Shadow realized he was going to slit his throat.

”Is this because I threatened to waterboard you?” He asked. “Love, I-I wasn’t serious. I love you! Look, if you put your knife down and untie me, we can forget about all of this. You can stay here—and be happy. With me.”

”I’m sorry, Shadow.” He brushed his lips over Shadow’s— _Like a goodbye kiss,_ he thought, miserably.—but he only bit down on his bottom lip until he tasted blood and his lovely little blond pulled away, lips crimson. He struggled against Vio.

He bled out in seconds. Scarlet stained his bed and his clothes and his skin, splattered all over Vio who let go of him quickly.

His last image—of Vio taking a hurried step back, covered in his blood and cum,—must have branded itself into the inside of his eyelids, because it followed him into the black void his consciousness fell in.


	7. More Extreme Violence, Yay!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio laments over his actions, but doesn’t succeed in his escape. Also, Shadow is crazy and Vio gets a bath.

Vio dressed hurriedly while his lover’s blood dripped onto the floor. He had fallen on his side, and his head hung off the mattress, eyes glazed over and unfocused. Technically speaking, he could take his time, there was no rush, but also—he wasn’t sure if he could spend another minute in the stone walled room, especially with a corpse on the bed.

 _I had to,_ Vio thought. _He wouldn’t let me leave._

He looked over at Shadow, bleeding, dead. His threats seemed like nothing, and the memories of him hitting Vio seemed minor, suddenly. Guilt chewed at his insides. The rope was still around his wrists. Hesitantly, Vio took a step towards him.

His body was still warm, he noted. The blood still fresh and oozing out of him, but time moved so slow, it felt like days had passed since Vio had killed him. He felt dizzy, looking at Shadow’s once beautiful eyes, now glassy and empty. It felt wrong, to leave him there, naked and tied up. Would it be even more wrong to untie him and dress him?

He did have time, he supposed.

He took another step forward, as if he expected Shadow to right himself and attack Vio, but he was still. He tried to process it all—his own knife had cut open his lover’s throat and now, he was tied at the wrists, naked, covered in semen and blood. Vio carefully cut at his ties, making sure not to get any of Shadow’s skin, even though there was barely any point to being careful, what with Shadow unable to feel pain and all. He threw the ropes to the side and sheathed his knife before forcing Shadow on his back, his arms not pulled behind him. He shut his eyes and pulled a black blanket over his body, hoping to hide the horrible slice over the artery, hoping to hide the blood. 

_Goddesses, Shadow,_ he thought, staring at his still body. He looked like he was sleeping, he didn’t look dead at the moment. _You were fucking insane but I loved you. I’m so sorry this had to happen to you._

He felt like staying any longer would be weird, so he checked again for his knife and ran out of the room.

The door opened for him easily and he was running down those stone staircases that brought him to Shadow. He found the place where he woke up the first time, but there was no doors or windows nearby, only more stairs. With no other choice, he kept going. 

Eventually, the stairs stopped. They led him to a long hallway with multiple doors, all firmly closed, some locked. Vio found himself hesitating. He had no idea what awaited him behind those doors, he had no idea where he was, and his sword and bow were not on him. He did not know where they could be, but all he had to protect himself with was his knife. Briefly, he regretted murdering Shadow—he could have stayed with them, then he wouldn’t have had to worry about where he was going, what he was going to do.

_“History’s repeating...”_

His heart hammered in his chest. He was aware he just heard a voice, but he decided to try and ignore that. _It’s the guilt talking,_ he decided. _I could have stayed, but he’s crazy. He would have murdered me in a fit of anger and then I would have wished I had ran._

He forced himself to take a step forward and went to the first door.

For a moment, he just stoood there, hand on the knob, staring at the door. He took a deep breath and opened it slowly. There was a loud creak that brought him back to stone hallways and firelight, back to those sleepless nights with Shadow, in the warmth of his bedroom, madly in love—it brought him back to where all that ended.

He stood still as if thinking someone heard the creaking door then stepped int the room.

It was dark, and as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the total lack of light, he tried to glance around, to see if he could see any shadows—no, he decided not to use that word. He tried to glance around, to see if he could see any black shapes in this darkness, of objects maybe. There was something in front of him, dark, a large rectangular something he moved a bit closer to.

It was leaned up against the wall, the stone wall. He moved closer, trying to see something. He had this horrible sense of dread.

Before he could realize what he was staring at, his foot crushed something as he stepped and he froze.

He slowly looked down.

Vio’s mouth went dry—he stepped down on the same spot and heard that sound again.

The sound of breaking glass.

He looked back up at the rectangular object leaned up against the wall and realized what he was seeing—the golden frame of the Dark Mirror.

 _The Dark Mirror..._ Vio swayed on his feet slightly. He felt so dizzy. _But Shadow destroyed it._

He leaned down and carefully picked up a shard of glass that was about the side of his hand.

He saw himself, holding a mallet.

He shivered and shook his head—he didn’t want to see that, he hadn’t wanted to hurt Shadow. He needed to get out he needed an exit.

The image in the mirror rippled, like when you skipped a rock across a pond, and then changed. Instead, Vio saw Shadow on the bed, hands tied behind his back with Vio clutching his knife.

He decided that was worse.

_”Vio...”_

He dropped the shard and it hit the floor loudly. He turned around. That had been Shadow’s voice!

He waited to hear more, but never did. His heart still pounding, he leaned down to pick up another shard.

He supposed he wasn’t that surprised to see Shadow standing behind him.

Before he had a chance to react, Shadow was right behind him, grabbing his knife and wrapping an arm around Vio’s body, pinning his arms to his body. Blood dripped onto Vio, warm but somehow chilling. He tried to scream, but it just didn’t come out.

“You’re so fucking lucky,” Shadow started, breathing heavily. “That the first thing I saw when I came down here was your cute little ass, because I think if you were facing me, I would have beat you within an inch of your life, tied you up, mollested you and then leave you down here to die and in the end, we’d both regret that.”

He struggled, but Shadow just placed the knife in front of his throat. “I mean, do you know how easy it’d be right now, to keep this knife at your throat and rape you? I could just pleasure myself right now with you, just throw you onto the floor, and beat you senseless and then go to town. I could do so much to you—and you wouldn’t like any of it. Oh, I’d like to see you fight me right now—I want to hurt you _so bad._ ” Blood just kept falling onto Vio—Shadow’s grip was bruising. “Don’t worry, Vi—I’ve learned my lesson.” He kicked the backs of Vio’s knees roughly, and he fell on all fours. “I can’t let my guard down around you, not even for a minute.”

Shadow started walking around him, pacing, in a circle, the heels of his boots clicking each time they met the floor. “Fucking traitor.”

All of a sudden, he stopped and Shadow was staring at the toes of his boots until Shadow grabbed his chin and made him look up with a scoff. “You didn’t even clean yourself up—you’re still covered in cum. You look like a whore.” His eyes were cold and glassy—but Shadow was breathing, even though he was bleeding. “Doesn’t help you’re on your hands and knees.”

“You’re the one who pushed me onto my knees—you’re the whore.”

He had no idea why he said that.

“Oh, Vio...you really want to talk about whores right now? I can make you my whore right now—I can do whatever the fuck I want with you. If I was actually in the mood, I probably would—I’d rape you until it couldn’t be considered rape anymore because you fucking love it so much and love what I do to you. I’d break your arms and slap your ass and bite your dick, I’d make you my bitch and you’d beg me for mercy and I’d love every fucking minute you spend in pain, on your knees like a slut.” Vio swallowed. “Do you want that? Is that it?”

He shook his head.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Now—do I have to drag you by the hair or are you gonna walk willingly?”

”I’ll walk,” Vio said. He was grasping for any sort of calm he could find. He found nothing. He took deep breaths as he walked, Shadow behind him, watching his every move, but it only helped him focus on how scared he was. But he couldn’t be scared, he had to find a way to escape, he was in danger. He was scared because he was in danger, of course, but if he lost himself to that fear, he might as well let Shadow follow through with his threats.

”Hurry the fuck up,” Shadow snapped, shoving him in the back. “I don’t like you being out here, I swear to the fucking goddesses—the _second_ I get you back in that room, I’m going to put you in those chains and if you struggle at all, I’ll cut you open and rip your intestines out.”

He had a feeling Shadow wasn’t kidding. He tried to quicken his pace, but there was so many stairs.

The moment he stepped into the room, the door slammed shut. Wordlessly, Shadow grabbed onto Vio’s tunic and dragged him to the corner of the room. His threat rung in Vio’s ears, so he didn’t struggle. It was a matter of seconds before he was back in those chains.

He knew what was coming, but he still flinched when Shadow grabbed his knife out of his sheath so quickly. He looked at it, turned it over in his hands, examining the blade before looking up at Vio. “You’re lucky I love you so much or I’d slit your throat right now.” Despite his words, he held the blade against his throat. “Then again, you did say you loved me, and that didn’t stop you, did it?” He fisted his hair and slammed the back of his head against the wall, still holding the knife, still holding his hair. “Did you lie to me again?” Vio closed his eyes—he was going to die. “Well? Do you love me? Answer me!”

Vio had a response, but it wasn’t an answer, and if he said it, Shadow would just slit his throat anyway.

He heard Shadow throw the knife down in frustration, it clanged on the ground and he opened his eyes to see Shadow standing up from his spot on the floor, on his knees, in front of Vio. Vio realized he saw the frayed rope, from when he cut it off of Shadow.

His heartbeat picked up.

All too quickly, he was in front of him again. He wrapped the rope around his neck and pulled tightly until Vio couldn’t breathe. His eyes watered, he made choking noises and he clawed at the rope frantically, needing oxygen.

He scratched at Shadow’s hand, but he just slapped him with the same hand and pulled tighter on the rope. “Don’t you fucking touch me, Vio! Answer the damn question!” He let go of the rope around his neck, allowing Vio to cough and gasp for air. “Say something, anything! Now, or I’ll cut out your tongue and you’ll never be able to say a single thing again!”

”Maybe,” he choked out.

He punched him across the jaw so hard, it turned Vio’s head annd it hit the wall beside him.

”What the fuck do you mean ‘maybe?’” He wrapped the rope around his neck again and pulled impossibly tighter. Vio could feel the rope digging into his skin horribly. “It’s a simple yes or no question—it’s not that fucking difficult. What do you mean maybe?”

He let go again and Vio gasped for air again. He felt Shadow grab at his hair again and force him to look up at him. “Answer me.”

”I mean I don’t know.”

There was a second of silence. Vio breathed heavily, savoring every breath of oxygen. “What do you mean you don’t know?” His tone was icy but it wasn’t the same anger. “How can you not know?” Vio didn’t answer. “How can you not know?” He demanded.

”Because I think I love you and then you do this.” He swallowed.

”Well, I constantly love you—I love you so fucking much, and even when you do shit like, tie me up, fuck me and cut my throat open, I know I still love you. The fact that you don’t fucking know is a damn lie—now tell me the fucking truth.”

”Maybe you don’t want the truth, maybe neither of us want the truth.”

”Then why don’t you just lie, it wouldn’t be anything new.”

He could see the anger in Shadow’s eyes. He grabbed the knife and started to roll up Vio’s sleeve.

”What’re you—“

”Shut up,” Shadow said. “I want to make you bleed, but I don’t want to kill you, don’t change that.”

Excruciatingly slow, he dragged the blade over Vio’s skin in a straight line, on the back of his arm, starting above the elbow, but he added more until there was a row of shallow, ugly cuts that reached right above Vio’s wrist. His entire arm dripped blood. That seemed to calm Shadow down way too much. He got to his feet and walked slowly to the window, knife in hand, his steps so slow it was hypnotizing. He wanted Vio to see what he was doing. He stood there for a second, looking at Vio before he threw the knife out along with any chances for Vio to escape.

”If you try anything like that ever again, I will tear you open with my bare hands, Vio,” Shadow said, his eyes still glassy. “And believe me, neither of us want that.” It happened so fast, Vio couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty sure Shadow wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

Vio tried to take deep breaths again—it still did nothing to calm him down. He glanced at his arm. As much as the cuts on him hurt they were very shallow, if many in numbers. He wouldn’t bleed to death, most likely. Exhaustion came at him in waves until it felt like he was drowning in his own fatigue. He didn’t care how angry Shadow was and that the spiders were returning. He just needed to close his eyes.

He woke up to Shadow on his knees in front of him again, still angry, but stroking his cheek gently. He briefly wondered if Shadow was considering killing him, but he didn’t seem to be.

”Oh, Vi...you’re so filthy. You need a bath.” He shivered. “You listen carefully, because I don’t have the patience to repeat myself, love: I’m gonna get these chains off of you, okay? And you’re gonna walk with me and do exactly as I say or I have to kill you, okay?” His voice seemed kind of sweet, but his words weren’t.

He nodded slowly. Shadow’s fingers traced his jaw and then pried a spider off of him. He looked like he was about to say something, but then he didn’t and just unlocked the chains on Vio. “Come on.”

He tried to pay attention to where he was going, following Shadow, but things seemed to grow darker with every step, a darkness so black that Vio wasn’t even entirely sure where he had come from. He couldn’t see Shadow, but his fingers wrapped around his wrist and tugged him in the right direction. Before long, Shadow had shoved him into a room with tiled floors. “Strip.”

”What?”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “You heard me perfectly, Vio—strip. I’m not in the mood to mollest you, this isn’t where I have my way with you, I just don’t like seeing you covered in your own cum and blood.” He crossed his arms. “Any day now, Vio.”

He knew Shadow would react poorly, but he also felt like taking off his tunic would be a poor decision. As smart as he was, he was still a Link—and all of the Links were as fucking stubborn as possible. He shook his head.

Shadow’s eye twitched. “Fine, then.” He turned on the faucet and stared Vio down while a bathtub he hadn’t previously seen slowly filled with water beside him. After a few moments, he shut off the water and grabbed Vio by the front of the tunic, dragging him towards the bathtub.

It took him a moment to realize, when Shadow threw him in and his entire body was completely submerged, that the water was freezing. It burned his skin and seemed to stop every single movement possible, taking the breath out of his lungs. As if he had realized what Vio was thinking, Shadow smirked. “I wouldn’t have had the water so cold if you listened to me, Vi. This is your own damn fault.” He kept shivering in the water, regretting his actions very much.

Shadow was surprisingly gentle as he washed Vio’s hair and face, but he could still see anger burning in his eyes like fire. Shadow was just keeping his temper under control—that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there.

Shadow scoffed, looking down at Vio. “Guess there isn’t any point in cleaning your body, since you didn’t strip like I said to.” The anger returned full force before Shadow grabbed at him again and held his head under water. He struggled, he tried to scream, but Shadow’s grip on him didn’t falter. Finally, he let go and let Vio gasp for breath. When he was done coughing up the water that made it’s way into his lungs, he looked back at Shadow to find the anger had left his eyes almost completely.

”Come on, love, lets get you out of here and back in your chains before I consider water boarding again.” _Again_ , Vio realized with a shudder that he didn’t entirely know was related to the thought. Even when Shadow pulled him out and dropped him on the floor, he didn’t move. He was still shivering on the floor. “Vio, come on.”

He tried to get up, but his hand slipped in water and he couldn’t push himself to his feet, he only fell back down. His head hit the floor hard. He heard Shadow chuckle. “Love, don’t keep me waiting.” He struggled to get to his feet again and once he stood—still shivering—he pitched forward. If Shadow hadn’t let him fall into his arms, he would have hit his head again and been back on the floor. He chuckled again.

He hated to admit it because Shadow’s sanity was questionable and it seemed like he was about to drown Vio moments ago, but he savored being in his arms for that moment. Shadow was warm, and his shivering became slightly less violent. “You’re lucky I find your clumsiness endearing and not annoying, Vi. You’re kind of cute shaking like this.” He slowly let go and Vio almost whined at the loss of contact and nearly fell again, but managed to catch himself. Shadow chuckled again. He looked like a doe taking it’s first steps—with wheels attached to it’s feet. On ice. If it was drunk.

”Alright, darling—we need to go, remember? Because you aren’t allowed to be out of your chains because you cut my throat open? Let’s go.” Vio realized Shadow’s throat was still slit, but it had stopped leaking blood. His front remained stained. “Vio.”

He followed behind Shadow, trying not to fall still. He didn’t remember much, he was suddenly back in the corner of the room, chained up and although he didn’t see Shadow Link, he could feel his gaze on him. He was still shivering but his mind was fuzzy. Everything started to fade—he was falling asleep, hair plastered to his forehead, shaking like a leaf. He was still asleep when he stopped shivering.


	8. In Which, Vio and Shadow Both Scream A Lot, But Do Not Have Sex, This Chapter Contains No Citrus of Any Sorts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio gets hypothermia and Shadow tries to gain Vio’s forgiveness by giving him a couple of gifts, leading to an argument about his choice of gifts and their relationship.

Shadow slept reasonably well, but he kept dreaming of his darling. They were back in the fire temple, and they had just stopped making love to each other when Vio cupped his cheek and poured his heart out to Shadow. The others meant nothing to Vio, in this dream. He loved Shadow so much more than them and he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with him. They stayed together and watched all of Hyrule burn.

He woke up happy—he didn’t know how long he had slept, but it wasn’t too long. His Vio was still asleep, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling, but something was off.

He slid out of bed quietly and got closer to him. Vio had stopped shivering, which was a good sign, wasn’t it? He had warmed up, then? But he pressed the back of his hand to Vio’s forehead, and it felt cold. His clothes were still wet, and they were very cold, why was Vio done shivering? Shadow almost panicked, but then he realized Vio was breathing, but his breathing was off. It seemed too shallow.

“Vio,” he whispered, not sure why he was whispering. He got louder. “Vio. Vio, wake up!” He grabbed onto his shoulders, panic sitting in, and shook his blond. 

He groaned quietly and opened one eye to look at Shadow. “Vio...?”

Vio didn’t respond. He blinked, but said nothing. His hair was still damp, the room was quite cold, he must have been _freezing_ , he realized. Shadow looked at the chains on Vio’s wrists. Maybe he had taken things a bit too far—he loved Vio! He didn’t want him to catch hypothermia and die! He unlocked the chains, realizing Vio was too weak to fight him. “Vio, you have to answer me, okay? Are you okay? Are you cold?”

He blinked again as the chains fell off. Slowly, he nodded.

“No, speak, Vio. I need you to speak to me.”

He barely seemed conscious. He groaned instead.

“Okay, I love you, so I’ll consider that speaking.” He was saying “okay” a lot, he realized. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do—was Vio’s lips turning blue? He muttered a curse word and started undressing him, carefully.

That seemed to get Vio talking. “N-No.” It was little more than a mumble and he tried to push Shadow away.

“Oh, Vi, I’m so sorry—I’m gonna get you warm, love, alright? I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that.” He was still struggling with Vio’s belt—he never struggled with Vio’s belt before! After a moment, he got it off.

“No...D-Don’t touch me...” Shadow pulled off his shirt and tunic, not really listening. “St-Stop!” He tried to pull away.

“Vi, I’m not gonna hurt you!” He tried to explain. “Just let me get this all off of you, okay? Oh, Vi, that was so stupid, I’m so sorry.” He pulled his boots off and his tights next, Vio stopped struggling against him and just whimpered.

“I’m sorry,” he said, picking him up gently and carrying him to his bed. He set him down just as gently and pulled the blankets over him, then dropped to his knees and groped beneath his bed. He had more blankets, that he knew, but where had he put them? He finally found something downy and soft, and dragged it out. He unfolded it and threw it on top of Vio.

Vio’s eyes were half-lidded, as if he couldn’t really see Shadow.

He ran a hand through his damp hair. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I was just angry. You were pissing me off. I don’t like hurting you.”

After a while, Vio started to shiver again—maybe, that was a good sign? Shadow didn’t know. He didn’t entirely know what he was doing, but he did know, wet clothes would have made Vio colder and he had to get warmer. He never would have guessed the water would be so cold. _Well, he kind of deserves this,_ he thought. He ran a hand through Vio’s hair again and kissed his temple. “I-I’ll be back in a second, okay, darling? Just... give me a second.”

 

Vio lost consciousness at some point when Shadow put his hands on him. The next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake and a hand was on his back—

—his bare back. He didn’t have any clothes on.

Shadow pressed something smooth to his lips and something warm filled his mouth. It was bitter but it calmed him and it warmed him. _Tea,_ he thought, numbly. Whatever Shadow was using to contain the tea was pulled away from his lips, and Shadow held the back of his head. He made him drink some more, but he didn’t let Vio breathe until every drop of the liquid was swallowed.

“Vivi...”He heard Shadow say. “I’m so sorry...I wasn’t thinking.” He was shivering and a hand was stroking his cheek. “I’m so stupid...I love you, Vi. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You...” He decided he didn’t want to finish.

Shadow made him lay back down and kissed his temple. “I love you—you know that, right?”

He didn’t answer.

Shadow sighed. His eyes closed once more.

When he woke up again, feeling warm and not shivering, he was holding hands with Shadow. Shadow was sitting on the floor, but his eyes were closed, his body tilted, the side of his face resting on the mattress.

He tried to move and stretch, but he didn’t necessarily want to let go of Shadow’s hand, so he just stayed still. After a couple moments, Shadow stirred, yawned and looked up at Vio. 

”Are you feeling better, angel?” His voice was gentle. “I’m so sorry about that, Vi. I hope you aren’t too mad about that.”

Vio blinked and tried to breathe deeply. Shadow let go of his hand and climbed onto the bed beside him, playing with his hair. “Vi?”

”I thought you were going to drown me,” Vio said, trying to find anything to say.

Shadow looked down at the mattress, clearly ashamed. “I’m sorry, Vi. Look, I’ll start treating you better, okay? I know that wasn’t right, and goddesses, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared—I thought you were going to die. Love, what if I hadn’t woke up just then? What if you just died in your sleep and I didn’t notice until I woke up and tried to wake you up? What would I ever do without you?” He sighed and let go of the strands of hair in his fingers. “I promise you, I’ll take care of you. I’ll feed you and listen to you, and I’ll love you, and I-I’ll...I’ll try not to hurt you like this.”

He tried again to explain this to him. “Shadow, you’re treating me like a pet.”

”I know you’re not a pet, Vi! You’re my lover. And what I did to you was wrong, and you have every right to be angry. If you want, I can leave...I can give you some time alone, and you can just...think. We can work on an agreement whenever you want.”

”Shadow...” He realized how poorly he was going to take this. “I need to leave. I need to get back to the others.”

”I don’t want you to leave me, Vi,” he whispered. “Please...I can be better! I love you, I love you so much! Please, Vio...”

He didn’t feel guilty for saying it. “You’re being absolutely pathetic right now—I wouldn’t want to leave you if you didn’t keep me here. You don’t have the basic understanding of how a relationship like the one you want works, and if you would quit acting like a child, and actually _listened_ Then maybe we—“ He couldn’t say much more—he burst into a fit of coughing. There was a tickle in his chest and he couldn’t breathe. He coughed until his face was red.

Shadow placed his hand on the back of his head. “It’s alright, my love. I know you’re angry, but you really shouldn’t be picking a fight with me right now.”

”You’re pathetic,” he said again. He felt a horrible satisfaction at the pained look on Shadow’s face.

”I’ll give you some alone time, Vi...I’ll be back soon, okay?” Vio just glared at him, so he just left without another word.

Vio realized multiple things at the exact same time.

1\. A) he didn’t have any clothes on.

1\. B) There wasn’t anything he could really cover himself with besides the blanket he was wrapped in and he was actually starting to get a bit too warm, despite the fact he had been freezing just a short time ago.

2\. He had absolutely nothing to do. Nothing.

3\. He had a spider on his elbow.

He smacked his elbow so hard, he felt the sting and the spider smeared on his hand and elbow. He slowly pushed the blankets off of him and got out of Shadow’s bed. He moved towards the door and despite the fact he’d be humiliated to have to traverse the hallways naked, he tried to open the door.

The door knob turned in his hand, but before he had the chance to pull the door open, he heard Shadow’s voice, from right behind the door. “Vio, I love you to pieces and as much as I want you to forgive me for being such a dick, _if you don’t get the fuck away from this door_ —“

Vio stepped back, taking his hand off the knob and staring at the door.

”Thank you, love!” With that, his voice faded.

Vio decided not to try the door again.

He turned around and went over to the window, trying to look at anything.

The sky was red and gold, and the sun sat on the horizon. He looked at it for a minute, trying to figure out if it was rising or setting, but he didn’t stare too long, that’s bad for your eyes. He looked down, but saw no ground. If he threw himself out of the window, he’d die, for sure. He made careful note of that. If worst came to worst, he could throw himself out, but he prayed it wouldn’t have to come to that.

He tried to think some more and then got n his knees on the floor and looked underneath the bed. Maybe there was something that could help him escape.

He found a blanket, covered in blood stains, but when he reached out he realized that it wasn’t just blood, and it looked almost exactly like the blanket on the bed now. Had Shadow made his bed before coming after Vio? He also found another thing of rope, multiple sex toys that made Vio blush and a notebook he could barely reach. He crawled under the bed and flipped it open, not bothering to move it. His eyes adjusted to the subtle lack of light beneath the bed rather easily.

Drawings. The notebook was full of drawings. Flawless sketches of landscapes, mostly, but occasionally, Vio’d see nothing but a silhouette of something, but didn’t know what the something was. Most of the pages were blank, and the last one Vio saw was—

He had failed to hear the door open, or hear Shadow’s footsteps, or hear him place something down on the table. He felt Shadow tap his ankle, he felt the leather of his boot on his skin. “What are you doing, my love?”

He would have pulled himself out and tried to pretend he hadn’t been doing anything, but that’s very difficult to do when the upper half of your body is beneath a bed and it’s very obvious you’ve been snooping. “Nothing,” he said. He tried to get out, but instead he slammed his head on something.

Shadow pulled him out by the ankle, and Vio tried to hide whatever was in his hand behind his back, suddenly blanking on what that was.

”Vi,” Shadow said. “What do you have?”

”A knife,” he replied.

”If this is your definition of a joke, you’ve a horrible sense of humor.” Shadow frowned, but “frown” wasn’t a good enough word to describe it. Neither was “scowl.” His lips were puckered as if someone had shoved a lemon down his throat whole, his eyes narrowed into a glare. “I’m going to repeat myself—what do you have?”

He brought the notebook out from behind his back. “You drew me.”

Shadow’s features brightened immediately. “Oh, thank the goddesses.”

It was open to a page that showed Vio, a closed book in his hand, his eyes closed and head thrown back in a laugh. It was a perfect drawing, Vio thought, and very in detail. It was like you could see every hair on his head individually, every pore in his skin. A lot of time and effort had gone into it, clearly.

”I didn’t know you drew,” Vio said. “And so well, too.”

”I’m glad you think so, love. This is definitely the best thing I’ve drawn. I’m glad you like it.” There was a brief hesitation. “What were you doing under the bed in the first place?”

He scrambled for an answer. “I uh...dropped something.”

”What did you drop?”

”A knife.”

”I’m this close to slapping you,” Shadow said. He sighed and grabbed Vio’s head, tilting it to the side. “You didn’t hit your head too hard, did you?”

”No...?”

”Good. Come on, I have something for you, Vi.” Shadow got to his feet, grabbing Vio’s hand and standing him up too.

”You do?”

”Yes. Four things, kind of.” He noticed he was grinning. “I’m basically trying to buy your love and forgiveness.” He walked over to the table and came back holding a tray. “Eat something. I haven’t been feeding you, recently, have I?”

It wasn’t much—a small bowl of a dark colored broth, steam rising up from it, a roll and a glass of ice cold juice. Vio ate quickly and quietly while Shadow watched. He felt like an ant beneath a magnifying glass—Shadow’s gaze and attention made him feel uncomfortable, probably because he was bare ass naked.

”Do you know you’re really cute when you eat?” Shadow asked. “Like, insanely cute. So cute I want to grab you by the hair, bend you over and—“ Vio blushed and looked away, and Shadow got the hint to stop, mercifully, never finishing his sentence. “Here, love.”

He handed him folded clothes—his tunic and hat, thank the goddesses!

Shadow gave him a smile. “I love seeing you like this, really, I do—but I know it makes you uncomfortable.”

He dressed swiftly, Shadow watching from on the bed, looking very disappointed that Vio had clothes on. “What _were_ you doing under the bed?”

”I dropped something.”

”What did you drop? Don’t say a knife.”

He pulled his tights up and his tunic down, and bit his lip. “...The ring I was going to use to propose we get married.” That seemed to be the best response—it’d flatter Shadow and answer the question.

Shadow noticeably blushed and got to his feet. He kissed Vio gently and put his belt on him, and fixed his hat before placing his hand on his cheek. “You’re so perfect,” he said, stroking his cheek. “I know I say that a lot, and I stroke your cheek a lot, but everytime I’m alone, I want nothing more than to be back with you and touch you like the way I am now, and every single time we’re like this, I realize how much I love you, and how lucky I am to have you—I say it a lot, but I’ll never say it enough.”

There wasn’t anything Vio could say at the moment that’d be a worthy response to something so sweet, so he didn’t say anything.

At least, Shadow didn’t seem to expect a response. “Okay, I guess I need to give you what I actually want to give you, huh?” He grabbed something off the table and handed it to him gently—a novel worn just as gently, large lettering on the front—the title—, boldly exclaiming ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS AT THE END OF FOREVER. “It’s your favorite book, right? I thought you’d like it.” It wasn’t just his favorite book, Vio realized. It was his copy, the one he kept on a nightstand at home and he knew because the cover was paperback and slightly curved, the corners of multiple pages were folded and it fit in his hands the same way his copy did. The only thing out of place was the red stain on the edges of the pages.

”What...?”

”Yes, Vi—it’s yours. It was really difficult to get it, you know, and of course, those three idiots saw me and tried to stop me because they didn’t know where you were and thought I was behind it—which I guess I am.”

”They tried to stop you...is that why there’s blood on this...?” It was still wet, Vio found.

”Which leads right to the next thing I’ve brought you, angel!” He showed Vio a shard of glass and gave it to him. “Careful, don’t cut yourself, love.”

He handled it carefully—there was something inside of him that let him know what was coming, but he was still shocked. The surface of the glass rippled and showed a sight that was gonna burn itself into Vio’s mind—a dark room with scarcely any light, three people laying on the ground. One in red, sprawled on his back, with a black eye. One in blue on his side, his arm at a weird angle. One in green on his stomach, hand outstretched as if he’s reaching for something. “Do you like it?”

His grip on the shard tightened until the edges dug into his hand and drew blood. “No,” he said, but he didn’t really say it. He just mouthed the words, but he didn’t make a sound.

”Vi, you’re bleeding.” Shadow took it away from him annd grabbed one of his hands, placing the bloody fingers in his mouth and sucking. Vio just sat there, too horrified to find words. Shadow stopped eventually, looking at Vio happily, but his expression faltered. “You seem so unhappy. Do you not like it? What if I give you something else?” He kissed Vio on the cheek. “Like...” His hand found Vio’s thigh.

“No,” Vio said, finally, his voice audible.

Shadow removed his hand. “Vi?”

”How could you?” He whispered.

”What?”

”How could you?” Vio said louder. “You _hurt_ them, what did they do?”

”They took you away from me, Vi. It’s not like they’re dead, you can go see them later.”

He shook his head. “They didn’t take me away from you—they _rescued_ me. If they hadn’t come, I would have died.”

”Oh, Vi, love...” He tried to grab his hand but Vio pulled his hand away. “Vi...I knew they were going to come.”

”You what?”

The room grew cold, the silence was deafening. It didn’t seem to bother Shadow. “I wasn’t going to actually kill you. I know it looked like it, but I wasn’t. You think I didn’t notice that fairy? I was still so madly in love with you, the plan wasn’t to kill you, my sweet.”

”What fairy?” He demanded.

”The one they sent to watch over you, since they couldn’t. That’s how they knew you were going to be executed—but you weren’t in any actual danger.”

The world was spinning. “What?” He whispered.

”You really thought I was going to kill you?” He asked. He placed a chaste, wet kiss on Vio’s cheek. “My poor love, I never would do something like that. Even if I threaten to. _You were bait._ I love you, angel—I knew they’d come to rescue you. What you did was basically treason to the kingdom we could have created, and in any other scenario, that’d be punishable by death, but why would I kill you?”

”You were going to kill them instead.”

”Exactly! It definitely would have been punishing you, but I still could keep you alive. But...things didn’t work out that way.”

”No, it didn’t—you lost at your own sick game.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I did...Oh, Vi, I was so angry—I thought it made sense, their lives in exchange for yours, but instead, you _escaped_ with them. And killed me instead.”

”I seriously wish you stayed dead,” Vio spat.

”You don’t mean that, angel. You don’t.”

”You don’t know what I mean.” He moved backwards when Shadow tried to touch him.

His hand fell down to his side. “Vi, why are you so upset?”

”Because you’re a fucking psycho!” He shouted. “I thought, at least, you wouldn’t hurt them if I was here, at least, they’d be fine!”

”If you’re good,” Shadow said quietly. “They will be.”

”’Good.’ You just mean obedient—if I obey you, they’ll be fine, and the worst part is _you don’t realize what’s wrong with that._ I can explain it until I lose my voice, but you still won’t understand because understanding means I’ll leave you.”

”Try me, love,” He said. “I’ll listen, talk, I’ll listen.”

Vio took a deep breath. “You say you want a healthy relationship, right?” Shadow nodded. “But you don’t want me to leave you, right?” Another nod. “So, in doing so, you’re holding me captive so I can’t leave, which is what is really making me want to leave, which you also don’t want, right?”

”Of course, Vio.”

”On top of holding me captive, you’ve also hit me, held my head underwater, given me hypothermia, threaten to kill and torture and me—all for the sake of keeping me here, so we can be happy. But you don’t actually care if I’m happy, because if you did, you wouldn’t have me chained to the wall half the time, or hit me everytime I talk about leaving. You don’t want me to be happy, you don’t want this relationship to be healthy.”

”No, no, no—Vio, I do! I just...I want you to stay.”

”But I don’t want to stay. You can only have one or the other, Shadow.”

”You seriously want me to choose between your happiness and our relationship?” Shadow looked horrified. “Why can’t you just be happy and want to stay?”

”Because it’s you or everyone else, Shadow!” Vio yelled. “That’s what it was before, that’s what it is now—I don’t even know if I actually want a relationship with you, and I don’t want this one!”

”What do you mean you don’t know if you want a relationship with me?” Shadow asked. “Why?”

”Because I don’t know how to feel about you!” Vio shouted. “You’re cute, and charming, and funny, and loyal—but you’ve also killed people and you have issues I can’t help you with and for a long time, I thought you were dead! Admit it, you don’t care if _I_ want this relationship—you want it, so you’re gonna get it, and I have to suck it up.”

”But I’m back now! I’m not dead! And I love you, I love you so much—why don’t you love me?”

”The fact that you kidnapped the others isn’t going to make me love you anymore,” he spat. “Did you think it would?”

”I...” He looked down. “I thought it might...coax you into it...just a bit more.”

”Oh, that’s _even better!_ Just great!” Vio shouted. “You were going to use them as leverage! How would that even work. ‘Hey, Vio—you have to love me because I’m mentally and emotionally unstable and I’m holding the people you care about most in this world hostage. Love me because I can easily kill them in a fit of rage!’”

”Well, I was tempted to just kill them when I went to get you your stupid book, but I thought you’d like this better.”

”Why not kill them instead, you’re pretty use to killing things. I wish I could say I’m surprised you’d do something like this, but since apparently, you were going to kill _Them_ for something _I_ did, I guess I shouldn’t be.”

”Oh, come on, Vio! You betrayed me—you tried to kill me, what? The other day ago?”

”I wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t keep me here!”

”I wouldn’t keep you here if you hadn’t betrayed me!”

”I wouldn’t have betrayed you if you hadn’t been destroying Hyrule!”

”Please,” he snarled. “If I hadn’t, nothing in the fire temple would have happened—I’d never fall in love with you, and I’ll kill thousands of people with my bare hands if it means I get to feel your touch. I don’t regret anything.”

”Feel my touch? Nothing like murder to get me into the mood! I would touch you so much and so good if you actually acted sane—if you didn’t kill people, if I wasn’t being forced to be here, if you hadn’t hurt Green and Blue and Red, I’d touch you everywhere you want me to touch you, and I would love you and we’d get that relationship you’d kill for.”

”But why can’t you love me now! I love you even though you’re a fucking, heartless traitor!”

”Because I need some goddesses damn time! Do you ever wonder if maybe—had I had some more time—things could have been different? I could have found another way! I wouldn’t have had to betray you, maybe we could have been happy—I needed time to grieve and mourn you after everything, I don’t even entirely know if I’m gay! Maybe y—“

”If you say ‘maybe,’ one more time, I’m gonna actually waterboard you! I don’t care if you don’t know, I don’t care if this is healthy—I want you, Vio, I love you—just love me back, damnit!”

Everything was silent for a minute—their words had escalated into screaming, but now, Shadow’s face was red. From shouting? He seemed to realize what he just said. “Vio...”

”Maybe, before you listen to me again, you should listen to yourself,” Vio spat. “Because clearly, you haven’t been doing either.”

Everything was quiet.

”Vio, I didn’t mean it, I was just angry.” His voice was soft. “Please...You know I wouldn’t hurt you, right? Not like that.”

”But apparently,” a lot of the anger had left his voice, instead, exhaustion creeped into his words. “You can hurt the others.” He shook his head. “I’m sleeping back in the corner, I am not sharing a bed with you.”

”But...I thought you hated spiders?”

”At the moment, I hate you more.”

He saw Shadow shrink in on himself and clutch his arm. “Vio, please...you don’t have to share a bed with me, just don’t sleep on the floor, you can have the bed. I really am sorry, love.”

”Don’t call me that,” Vio snapped.

”But, Vi...”

”Don’t call me that either.”

”...Okay.”

Vio curled up in the corner again. It seemed the spiders were in hiding, maybe fearing their screams. He shook his head, as if to clear it, and sat with his back against the wall in the corner. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes.


	9. You Know Your Problems Are Bad When Reading Doesn’t Help You Solve Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow drugs Vio.

Shadow sat on his bed with his legs hanging off, his feet on the floor, as he watched Vio sleep. His features had smoothed themselves out and his chest fell evenly and slowly. But Shadow didn’t want Vio to sleep on thee floor, the floor hurt. He swallowed. “Vi?” He whispered, but there was no response. Then, a bit louder, “Vi, love?”

All was silent.

Quietly, he got off of his bed and went towards Vio, sleeping peacefully. Carefully, he picked him up, an arm supporting his legs and a hand on his back. He laid him down gently on the mattress then sat next to his limp body. He unbuckled is belt and pulled it off before removing his boots, his hat, his tunic, keeping his thin undershirt and tights on. He laid Vio’s head on a pillow and pulled a blanket around him before folding his removed clothes next to him on the table. He kissed his forehead and placed his book and a glass of water next to his clothes before stroking his hair.

“Oh, Vi...I know you’re mad at me...but I love you. I’ve never loved someone so much, so I don’t want to let you go, does that make me selfish?” If Vio was awake, he’d say yes, he felt. “I know you just want more time—I’ll give you more time, love. You can have all the time in the world. I want you to be happy, love—and I know the others make you happy, and reading does...you’re the only thing that makes me happy, Vi. I don’t want to lose you.”

Vio didn’t even stir. He kissed his forehead again, then rose to his feet and left the room.

When he woke up, he knew he was in Shadow’s bed, but he could barely care at the moment. He just couldn’t—so he decided to just lay there and be angry—at himself, and Shadow, and the goddesses for making his life suck so completely. His mouth was dry and although he saw the glass of water, he decided he didn’t want anything Shadow had to offer. He put his clothes on and then sat back down on the bed. He considered grabbing the book, but Shadow had offered that too. Then again, he offered the bed, h offered Vio his clothes just the night before.

Still, though...

He seriously wished the bedroom wasn’t so dreadfully boring. There was little to interact with, little to do. Unless Vio made friends with the tiny black spiders, he was alone, at least until Shadow came back, but he didn’t want to interact with Shadow. So, he found himself picking up his book.

He flipped to one of the pages with the folded corner and read whatever was there.

_A familiar feeling washed over him with the force of a tsunami, horrible and determined, and he really wished he couldn’t identify the emotion he knew so well—love. Because he truly did love him and knew he was trying so desperately, and he himself was trying to erase all that love inside him, trying to just bring himself to hate his lover, but he couldn’t. Because he’d love him until the end of his days, he’d love him forever and ever, there wasn’t anything he could do that would make him hate him, he just lived him so, so much. He only ever felt right when his body was on top of his, his mouth on his, but they were both so stupid! He was stupid, why did he have to love him, love him so horribly much—_

Vio stood up on the bed and threw the book with all his might. The spine hit the stone wall and broke—pages fluttered out and fell to the floor slowly, the cover collapsing. He dropped back down and hugged his knees.

He _loved_ that book, but why did the first page he flip to have to be that?

He tried to calm himself down, but nothing worked. He just hugged his knees.

He heard the door open eventually. “Vio?”

He didn’t bother to respond.

”You’re gonna ignore me, now?” He heard the pain in Shadow’s voice, but didn’t care. “Oh, no, Vio, your book! What happened?” There was no response to him, but Vio heard him crouch down and start picking up the papers. “Did you not like it? I thought it was your favorite. Love, I can get you another book, if you want. You just have to speak to me.”

He heard footsteps get closer. “You didn’t even drink water, angel? Are you feeling alright?”

He felt Shadow’s hand on his shoulder, turning him around and then feeling his forehead.

”Don’t touch me,” he snapped.

”Are you okay?” Shadow asked. He pulled a hand through Vio’s hair gently. “Are you tired? Do you need something to eat?” He picked up a strand of hair and frowned. “You need a bath.”

”I said, don’t touch me!” He slapped Shadow’s hand away and watched him flinch. He felt guilty, but he didn;t care, he was used to guilt.

”Love...come on, aren’t you thirsty? Drink something, please...” There was a glass of water in his hand suddenly.

 _Yes,_ he thought, but then decided against it. He shook his head, even though his mouth was so dry.

”Vi, come on...You can be angry at me and refuse to talk to me, but getting dehydrated won’t get back at me.” He reached out a hand to touch Vio—he wasn’t sure where—but then it drew back and the glass of water was in front of his face. “Please...”

”And you put me into your bed, and undressed me!” He shouted. “Do you have no concern for anyone’s boundaries?”

”Love, please...” It was a whisper. “Please, I’m sorry, just...don’t do this to me. Take a drink.”

He sighed. “Fine.” He knew he had been wanting a drink this entire time, but he still felt defeated as he accepted the glass and brought it to his lips.

It was cold but it felt so good. He drank nearly all of it before Shadow hurriedly took it away. “Not so much, Vi...” He leaned forward and kissed Vio on the temple, moving away before Vio could shove him away.

Vio rubbed at his mouth with his sleeve. “Where the hell is my tunic?”

”I need to wash it, Vi. I need to wash your clothes and you need a bath.”

”Fuck no, get away from me.”

Shadow sighed. “Okay, love...what about I go get you another book, hm? Just rest while I’m gone, I’ll be back really soon, I promise.”

Vio rolled his eyes. “Take your damn time—I’ll use this time to find a way to get away from you.”

”You see, it’s stuff like that that makes me hesitant about leaving you alone.” He sighed. “You can’t leave, Vio. I’ll be back, okay?”

Vio just sat himself down on the bed and sighed. There was no way out, he knew that now, but he was still gonna rebel at every opportunity.

At some point, he couldn’t quite control his limbs. They just didn’t obey him. He slumped over and went limp, but was still conscious. He couldn’t move. Shadow came in soon after and placed something on the table Vio couldn’t look at, because he couldn’t turn his head. He felt the added weight on the bed, and felt Shadow’s hand in his hair.

”Don’t touch me,” he tried to say, but his tongue was gummy and stale. It suddenly occurred to him he had seen the glass of water on the table moments before, and it had been full—Shadow had given him a different glass. Did he drug him?

”I’m sorry, Vi—but I don’t regret this.” He picked him up easily and Vio tried to struggle, really, but his limbs were suddenly heavy, too heavy to lift. “Come on, don’t make this any harder.”

All of a sudden, Shadow was taking him somewhere, but he didn’t know where and he couldn’t struggle, so he just tried to clear his mind and not panic. Eventually, Shadow set him down on hard, cold floors—and he heard running water.

”You...”He struggled to speak. “You bastard.”

”I tried to get you to stop drinking so much,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure how much you have in your system—do you feel okay?”

”Did you fucking drug me?” He asked. His tongue struggled to make the ‘r’ sound, so instead he said “dwug.”

”Just a sedative,” he said. “It’s supposed to make you feel very relaxed. It won’t knock you out.”

He heard the water shut off. “No,” Vio said. He tried to push himself off of the floor, to put as much distance as possible between him and Shadow, but he was no match.

”Come on, love...” He kissed his temple again. “I need to get these off of you, I need to clean you.” He pulled Vio’s undershirt off and kissed him on the nose. “I know your mad at me, but if this is what I need to do to take care of you, then I’ll do this.” He tugged the waistband of Vio’s pants down and he spat at him. Briefly, Shadow let go and rubbed at the saliva on his cheek with his sleeve. “Vi...please...I love you, I love you so much, so don’t do this. I’m just trying to help you—you can’t take your own clothes off right now, can you?” Shadow pulled his tights off completely and Vio was sprawled out before him, completely bare and exposed. He heard Shadow sigh. “You drank too much, didn’t you? I’m so sorry, Vi.” Shadow gathered him in his arms and gently placed him inside the bathtub.

The water was warm this time, Shadow wasn’t angry this time, he wasn’t wearing clothes this time. Shadow was holding his clothes and looking down at him. “I’m gonna go take care of your clothes—can I leave you alone for a few minutes and not worry about you drowning?”

He decided not to answer.

”Okay, love, I’ll be right back, you just relax for me.” He kissed him on the mouth slowly and then left Vio alone. Vio realized he could get out of the water, go through the door—try to find an exit. But dripping wet and nude? Plus, he couldn’t really move. Could he?

He attempted to get out of the water, but only succeeded in slouching forward until his face was submerged. He struggled for a minute and in pulling his head out of the water, managed to smack it hard against the tub. He groaned.

He could not move, he decided.

He heard the door open. “Vi?” He saw Shadw’s frown. “What did you do? You’re bleeding.”

Fingers pressed on the back of Vio’s head, pressing a spot that hurt. Shadow’s fingers were covered in blood when they pulled away. “You don’t have a concussion, do you?” Vio didn’t answer. “I guess I’ll have to keep am eye on you.” He gave a soft smile that Vio was ashamed to admit, that even in his drugged, angry state, sent his blood rushing south.

Shadow leaned forward and grabbed Vio’s shoulder to lean him back and rinse his hair in the bath water. He really couldn’t struggle, but he hissed in a breath when anything made contact with where he had hit his head. He swore he could hear Shadow frown. “I’m sorry, baby, I need to do this.” He held still while Shadow washed his hair—he couldn’t do that when he tried to wash his body.

”Vi, stop squirming.”

”Don’t touch me,” he mumbled, but Shadow only continued to. The worst part was, Shadow was being gentle and it wasn’t exactly sexual. He was rubbing at Vio’s shoulders and back, but it was the gentleness that was making Vio uncomfortable. Shadow had drugged him, Shadow had hurt him—but he still had to be so careful and soft when he touched him. It was horrible, he thought as Shadow’s fingers roamed his chest. Probably because Vio couldn’t fight back, Shadow was being extra thorough, trying to make sure he cleaned every last part of Vio.

”Please, no,” he whispered when Shadow’s hands had worked their way up his legs and thighs to his crotch. “Shadow, please...”

”Okay, love—I won’t touch you there.” He felt a kiss on his temple, but he finally noticed his eyes were shut. How long had they been shut? He heard the water start draining and felt Shadow pull him out, wrap something around him—and pick him up. He found himself sinking into the warmth of Shadow’s arms, and the softness of the towel around him.

He heard a door open, felt Shadow place him down on the bed, but still couldn’t open his eyes. He just laid still while Shadow toweled him off, patting his limbs and hair dry. He heard Shadow drop the towel on the floor. Shadow gathered him up again sat on the bed, and situated himself so Vio was next to him, his legs spread just a bit, with Shadow’s arms around his shoulders and a hand running through his hair. He kept moving, as if he needed to do something else with his hands, so eventually, he was also stroking Vio’s cheek, resting his hand on his thigh, wrapping an arm around Vio’s waist so he could trace shapes into his hip. At one point, he was sitting on Vio’s lap. He finally settled on having Vio leaned up against him, an arm around his waist and a hand stroking the entire side of his face and occasionally playing with his hair. Vio could feel his breath on his neck.

”Why can’t we rest like this all the time?” Shadow asked. “Why won’t you let me hold you like this?” He felt Shadow press a kiss to his cheek. “I’m not hurting you, am I?” He shook Vio slightly, trying to get an answer.

”No,” he said, but he had to admit that the ache in between his legs was starting to get painful. He seriously wished he had control of his limbs so he could just drop a hand down there and ease it, even though he was in front of Shadow.

Shadow leaned his head against Vio’s. “Then why not? It’s not sexual, is it? This isn’t making you uncomfortable?”

”I’m fucking naked.”

”And you’re really cute naked,” Shadow said. “You just got a bath, I’ll give you your clothes back in a minute.”

 _”You’re_ not naked.”

He could hear his smirk, his raised eyebrow. “Do you want me to be?”

Vio flushed—he was thinking of Shadow naked, of his pale, smooth, flat chest, as white as a piece of paper, of those nipples Shadow loved when Vio toyed with, of that round, tight ass Shadow _loved_ to shake in his face and have Vio fuck until Shadow thought he wasn’t going to ever be able to walk again in his life. He thought about Shadow’s dick, in between his legs, smaller than Vio’s, but so perfect, pale and wet and delicious and always so _hard_.

Shadow had started placing soft kisses on Vio’s neck and face and chest and Vio groaned—his cock twitched, grabbing Shadow’s attention.

”Shadow,” he whimpered, finally managing to open his eyes.

Shadow tore his gaze off of Vio’s privates just long enough to look at his face. “Yes, love?”

He rolled his hips. “Please...”

He saw Shadow’s eyes darken. “Oh, Vi...are you sure?”

He was so hard, why couldn’t Shadow just give him a handjob and be done? He tried to nod, but it was so difficult—why couldn’t he just get himself off?

Slowly, Shadow’s fingers wrapped around his dick. “Damn...” He saw Shadow lick his lips. “You’re really hard.” He played with the slit until Vio groaned. He closed his eyes again while Shadow went to work, pumping him quickly.

He felt Shadow kiss the side of his face multiple times, licking at his earlobe and shell. “You’re so perfect. Why can’t we do this more often?” He leaned down and kissed the head softly before continuing with the handjob. “Mm...”He licked his lips. “You even taste good.”

”Shadow...”It was a whimper, but it turned into a moan while Shadow got faster.

”Come on, baby, I know your close,” he murmured. “Say my name again.”

”Shadow,” he groaned as he released, his hands siphoning him dry.

He felt a kiss on his mouth. “Oh, Vivi, you got all dirty,” Shadow cooed. “I just gave you a bath!” Vio did not respond, all he saw was the backs of his eyelids.

He felt something warm and rough on his stomach. He opened his eyes and saw Shadow, his tongue scraping against his skin in an effort to get all of Vio’s semen off of himself. He felt Shadow’s tongue on his thigh, but decided that he simply didn’t care. He closed his eyes again and tried to calm himself.

His thoughts drifted to the others as he slept.


	10. Yay, Blue!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vio has a weird dream, a conversation with Blue, and a very bad feeling. Blue uses some horrible vocabulary.

_”I know I’m an idiot,” Blue said, gazing out the window. “But I’m not the only one who’s seriously worried about why Vio’s taking so long visiting Erune, right?” He leaned away from the window and looked back at the others. “Like, obviously, Vio wouldn’t take this long.” Rain tapped on the glass of the window and outside lightning flashed, but there was no thunder. Even Blue’s voice was quieter than usual, his fear and worry laced into the words._

_Blue kept talking, feeling like the others weren’t reacting appropriately. “Like, he was supposed to be back yesterday, right? And even though he didn’t come back at night like he usually does, you’d think he’d at least come back in the morning, but it’s been like, one and a half days, and where the hell is he?”_

_”It’s raining,” Green said. “He might have stopped to avoid catching a cold. It’s been raining a lot.”_

_Blue frowned and shook his head. “Something’s wrong. I don’t know how I know, but I know.”_

_Just then, there was a knock at the door of their house. Blue rushed to open it. Outside it was pouring, and a figure stood in the doorway, in a cloak dotted with water, but it was clearly not Vio, it was too short. They yanked back the hood quickly. “Hi, Blue.”_

_”Oh, it’s just you, Erune,” Blue said, rather disappointed._

_”Good to see you, too—um...” Blue finally noticed the blood on her. “D-Don’t suppose I can step in?”_

_”Uh, Green!” He shouted, pulling her in and closing the door. “Problem.”_

_”Erune, are you okay?” Red asked._

_She was holding something, and her right hand was pressed against her left side. She pulled it away, showing the crimson stain on her fingers. “Well...not really.” Green stepped forward and sat her down on the couch in the living room. She took off her cloak, showing that she numerous small wounds on her—they bled a lot, but seemed pretty shallow. And definitely not lethal. And she was holding Vio’s sword._

_”What happened to you?” Green asked._

_”Um...Vio left a book at my house and I followed after him, but...A guy stopped me and asked me about him...” SHe frowned. “He looked...kind of like you guys. But with purple hair. I answered some of his questions—he looked really angry when he left. I found Vio eventually, but he...” She blinked and looked down at her wounds. “He was pissed. He just...started hitting me and I don’t know why...” She shook her head. “I don’t think it was Vio, though—he had his sword, but he just...dropped it when he was done and left it. I dropped his book somewhere...” She sighed. “I don’t know, I felt like I had to bring his sword here and see if he was okay—that just...seemed so unlike him.”_

_”Purple hair?” Blue asked. He looked at Green. “Something did happen.” He turned back to Erune. “What did the purple haired bastard say to you?”_

_”He asked about Vio...I gave him a weird look, because he looked like him slightly, you know? so, he decided to clear up what he meant. He said he’d been looking for him for a while and described him as, um...sexy as fuck, hiding his perfect face behind a book...and then he just spent like, five minutes, gushing about how amazing he was and I admitted that he was kind of cute. That was about when he got angry.” She noticed the look on Blue’s face. “Um, I said he was on his way home and I was going after him to give him his book, and if he wanted I could help him find Vio, but he just stormed off.”_

_”That son of a bitch!” He looked at Green, startling Red and Erune while Red tried to help Erune with her wounds. “Something happened! That fucker hurt Vio!”_

_”But, Blue, he’s dead,” Green argued._

_”Did he look dead to you, Erune?”_

_”No? Just crazy.”_

_He pointed to her as if she was evidence. “That’s why he’s been gone for so long! That...that faggot hurt him!”_

_”Blue, don’t use the word ‘faggot,’” Green scolded. “Vio’s gay, do you have any idea how he’d react if he heard you using that word? Plus, Shadow Link’s supposed to be good, he helped us!”_

_“He also tried to kill Vio, remember?” Erune just watched them interact while Red tried to tend to her wounds._

_”Blue, are you okay?” Red asked. “You’ve been really quiet since Vio left, but now you’re...really loud.”_

_He shook his head. “Something’s wrong.”_

 

Vio woke to a pounding in his skull—but he was able to move. He groaned and tried to sit up. He thought back to Blue—that had been a strange dream, especially since Blue was an idiot. He grimaced as a hand ran through his hair and jerked backwards.

“Morning, love,” Shadow said. “Did you sleep well?” Another glass of water was in his hand and Vio had to admit, he was thirsty.

He hurried to get out of bed and away from Shadow, now that he could actually move, although slightly slower than usual. “You drugged me!” He shouted.

”I just...” He moved closer—his gaze noticeably dropped to Vio’s still bare cock before he looked back at Vio’s face. “I just wanted you to relax.” He moved a bit closer. “Are you thirsty?”

”I...I can’t believe you...” His face grew hot. “You...You g...”

”Yes, Vi—I gave you a handjob. It’s not the first time, either.” 

Vio shook his head. “I didn’t fucking consent to that!” He shouted.

”Yes, you did. You were the one who wanted it, remember? You asked me to.”

”But I was drugged! Legally, my consent wasn’t given because I was under an influence...I think.” His head was pounding. He had wanted it, but also, he hadn’t. He remembered, he had been thinking of someone while that happened, and that wasn’t Shadow. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was worried, or if thinking about them just made him hard..

”I just wanted you to relax,” Shadow said, his voice still calm. “And while you were relaxing, you got a hard on, and I took care if it for you, because you couldn’t.”

”Because you drugged me!”

”Come on, Vi...I know you’re dehydrated—you need a drink?” He tried to press the edge of the glass against Vio’s lips, but he backed away. Shadow grabbed his arm and pulled him closer before pressing the rim against his mouth and tipping the glass back until Vio’s cheeks swelled. Instead of swallowing, Vio spat it back out at him and—as if it was a reflex—he backhanded him across the face and threw it into Vio eyes. “Fine! Don’t drink anything—don’t come crying to me when you’re about to die of dehydration!” Without another word, he stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him.

On the table was his usual clothes—he finally wouldn’t have to walk around the room in the nude!—three books, and the shard of glass that had let him see the others. Hesitantly, he picked it back up and looked at it. The surface rippled again and showed the dark room. He was pretty sure he saw Red move, heard Green groan.

He put on his clothes quickly. They were clean, and warm—he sighed when he finished dressing, it only felt normal to be wearing his usual clothes, and now, Shadow wouldn’t stare at him so hungrily, probably. He turned his attention to the books on the table. He flipped to the first page in the first book and read:

_He sucked hard and looked up slightly to see his prisoner’s pretty, flushed face. Clearly, he was enjoying this. Caden would have smirked if his mouth wasn’t full of cock. He deepthroated it until his lover—who he hadn’t learned the name of just yet—groaned and tugged at his restraints some more. Caden pulled away for a moment, to catch his breath, then placed the dick back in his mouth. His knees hurt from how long they’d been on the floor, kneeling in front of the stranger, sucking him off. Why was he such a bastard? He was still struggling, even though Caden was probably giving him the best blowjob of his entire life. Anger rose up inside him and writhed—he bit down, hard. The man screamed and Caden slipped a hand inside his own pants, touching himself to all the screaming. He tried to imagine his real love, sitting on a cot while Caden blew him, but that was just too difficult. The image slipped away too quickly. He bit down again—another scream, he swallowed the mouthful of blood he had and savored it—he felt the warm liquid all over his lips and chin, but didn’t care. He pulled away and looked at his prisoner. He just wasn’t good enough, he didn’t look enough like Jareth. Still, he had lasted a while, much longer than it usually took for Caden to lose it and kill whatever his new victim was. He remembered that brief bout of insanity he had experienced when his prisoner tried to insist he wasn’t into guys. Now, the man was hunched over, his dick bleeding profusely between his legs, whimpering. Caden cupped his chin. “Oh, pet, did that hurt?” He stroked his cheek with his thumb and waited for a slight nod. “You’re really lucky, you know. Because usually, with most pets, they have to get their balls removed when they can’t keep it in their pants—I didn’t remove them, did I? You should really thank me for that—but because you’re a fucking bitch, I know you’re not going to, so I’m just gonna let you stay down here to rot.” He licked the last of the blood off of his lips, and thought back to Jareth—his gorgeous dark eyes, his brilliant smile—and felt himself harden even more. He briefly entertained the thought of—_

Vio finally closed the book, deciding that that was horrifyingly erotic, and feeling very ashamed it had turned him on. He had barely any clue what the book was about, but he decided it was porn and moved onto another of the three.

One actually seemed interesting, and the final seemed to be a collection of short stories and poetry. He put them all down and sat on the bed again to think.

He’d be a liar if he didn’t admit he felt the urge to keep reading the first book, but he still sat down and wracked his brain. Shadow had the others, so if Vio tried to escape or manipulate Shadow and failed, he’d most likely turn to them to release his anger, and he didn’t feel like he’d be able to convince Shadow not to hurt them. Not to mention, if he _were_ to attempt escaping, he couldn’t just leave them behind, because most likely, Shadow’d kill them. ...Or would he?

He frowned. Shadow didn’t seem to understand the whole of it—thank the goddesses, he would not react well, Vio knew—but he understood partially how Vio’s relationship with the others worked. He knew enough to make a plan where Vio was bait and the other three thought he was going to be killed—Shadow knew they were being watched, knew the other three would come for him.

He stood up again and looked at the shard of glass on the table—the one that let him see the others. If the door was unlocked, there was a possibility Vio could find the exit, and just pray he didn’t run into Shadow, and there had to be an exit, because if there wasn’t, there couldn’t be an entrance, either. What if Shadow was aware of that possibility?

He fought the urge to shatter the piece of glass into even smaller pieces—of course he was aware. Because Vio _could_ escape, but how long would he really be away, knowing Shadow had what was his family locked in a cell, weak, unarmed, and Shadow was clearly unstable. He knew that it’d keep Vio in line and would make him come back. He’d use them as bait, this time. That made him even angrier.

As if on cue, the door opened and Vio turned around. “You motherfucker!” He shouted.

”I love you too, Vio,” Shadow said in response. He combed his fingers through Vio’s hair gently. “Are you still mad because I gave you a handjob, or is this something else?”

He shoved Shadow away, but he just rolled his eyes. “Vi, I’m starting to get kind of sick of this—you can’t be mad at me all the time, you...” He bit his lip. “You’ve never been so quick to anger before.”

”I’ve also never been held captive or drugged before, this is all sorts of new experiences for me.”

”I know what will make you happy!” Shadow moved a strand of hair out of Vio’s eyes. “Do you want to go see the others?”

Vio relunctantly followed Shadow until—wherever they were, it was dark. It was a dungeon of some sorts, he thought, because of all the cells, but they were mostly empty, except for the one that held three people. He fought the urge to sprint towards them, but it was a fight he lost miserably. He left Shadow behind somewhere in his haste to get to them.

The only one that was conscious was Blue, leaned up against the wall, his arm still at a horrible angle, clearly broken. Across from him, Green was leaned up against the wall, his head lolled and Red was in the same position he was last time Vio saw him, on the ground on his side, his eye still bruised. He straightened immediately. “Vio?”

”Blue,” he said, kneeling down to his height. “Thank the goddesses you three are okay!” Okay was too strong of a word, alive would have been a better one. Blue’s arm looked worse up close. It wasn’t just at a wrong angle, or bent in a weird place—a part of bone stuck out in his upper arm and another in his forearm, blood seeping from the ugly, torn skin. Vio struggled to keep his gaze off of the shard of bone he saw. On top of that, Blue was covered in numerous small cuts and scrapes and bruises.

”Fucking hell,” Blue said, looking at Vio. “Did that goth fucker do that to you?”

Vio wasn’t sure what he was talking about—but he suddenly heard footsteps stopping behind him.

”You goth fag!” Blue shouted. “What the actual fuck did you do to Vio?”

He could hear Shadow smirk. “What _didn’t_ I do to Vio?” He felt a hand caress the back of his head and his face erupted in flame. “Don’t worry, love,” he said, quietly. “We can leave whenever you want.”

”’Love?’” Blue repeated, a look of disgust on his face. “Aw, hell, Vio...” He seemed to know.

”Shadow’s holding me captive,” Vio said, literally not caring if Shadow heard. “And he insists I love him, even though I’ve been demanding he let me go.”

”You sure loved me last night if that hard on means anything.”

His face flushed brighter and he turned around and stood up. “Shadow...”

”Ready to go, already, Vi?”

”Shadow, please—can I be alone with them?” He saw Shadow scowl. “Please. It won’t be long.” He regretted his cursing at him from before—Shadow seemed about to say no, about to grab Vio and pull him out for doing so much as suggesting he be alone with someone who wasn’t Shadow.

He inhaled deeply. “Five minutes,” he said. “You can talk to him as long as you want, but I’m going to leave you alone for five minutes. And if he does anything—and I really mean anything, my love—that bothers you, you can tell me, and I’ll fix it, okay?” He grabbed Vio’s shoulder and kissed him briefly before turning on his heel and leaving. Immediately, Vio knelt back down and looked at Blue.

”I know that looked fucking horrible, but I can explain,” Vio said.

”How much is there to explain?”

”Admitedly, not much,” Vio sighed. “We had a thing back at the fire temple, and...Well, I basically already told you.” He tried to get the red off of his face. “How’s your arm?”

Blue seemed to try to move it, but grimaced. “Looks worse than it feels. Green was about ready to faint.”

”Jeez...I might be able to convince Shadow to do something for your arm—get a potion, maybe, or let me attempt to set the bone. ...Did he do that to you?”

”What do you think?” He looked closely at Vio, then brought his own hand to his own neck. “Did he do that to you?”

Vio grasped at his throat and felt the bruises and scabs left from the rope. “Yeah, I um...I slit his throat and tried to escape. He caught me and while he was raging, he did that to me.”

”Wait, you slit his throat?”

”It didn’t kill him, in case you were wondering.” Vio bit his lip. “You don’t happen to have your dagger on you, do you?”

”It was the first thing I looked for, no.” Blue rubbed at his eyes and leaned forward. “Seriously, are you okay? What else has he done to you?”

Vio grimaced. “...He’s threatened to waterboard me, to...molest me. And he’s held my head underwater in ice cold water, giving me hypothermia. ...He’s also drugged me with some water. Earlier, he tried to get me to drink another glass but I refused and he slapped me.”

”Well, that explains the handprint bruise on your face.” Blue reached through the bars and pressed his fingertips on Vio’s cheek, pressing down slightly. It was surprisingly gentle, and really nice to be touched in a way that wasn’t even remotely sexual by someone who was decently stable.

”How are the others?” Vio asked.

”They’re alive. They’re asleep. No broken bones or anything.” He sighed. “I _knew_ something had happened...maybe if I realized that sooner and convinced the others we could have done something. We could have gotten you away from him.” He spat out the last word like it was poison. Vio decided he’d do the same if his arm looked like that.

He wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. “Maybe,” he shrugged. Because there had been a possibility. Now what could they do? Maybe if Vio hadn’t used his dagger before, or maybe if he had just left Shadow’s body to rot on the bed instead of cutting through his bonds—that was so stupid! He sighed. “Let me see your arm.”

Blue didn’t protest and tried to move it. Vio could tell he was biting his tongue, as if to prevent himself from making any noise, most likely to protect his stupid little reputation that didn’t matter anymore. Honestly, Vio thought, gently grabbing onto Blue’s arm and trying to keep his deadpan on while he examined the broken bone. Nothing mattered anymore. They were going to die, all of them, it seemed to only be a matter of time. 

Blue pressed his other hand onto Vio’s face and moved a strand of hair away, his fingers pressing onto another bruise on his other cheek. “How did you get this bruise?” He asked.

”I don’t know,” he sighed. He had read about setting bones, but could he actually do that on Blue, could he do it safely? He bit his lip.

”Vi, your five minutes are up.” He didn’t hear Shadow’s footsteps, just felt his gaze. He realized how pissed Shadow probably was, with Vio’s hands on Blue, Blue touching his face. Quickly, Blue yanked his arm out of Vio’s grip and moved away from him, biting his tongue again and very openly glaring at Shadow.

”Let’s just go,” he sighed, getting to his feet.

Shadow cupped his face with both of his hands tightly and gave him a way too long, open mouthed kiss. When Shadow finally pulled away, still cupping his Vio’s face with a thin trail of saliva connecting their mouths, he grinned. _”Anything_ for my lovely, perfect Vio!” He grabbed his hand and tugged him behind him as he left. Vio looked over his shoulder and was pretty sure he saw Blue fake gag. It shouldn’t have made him smile so much, he decided, as Shadow pulled him back to his room.

”What are you smiling about, love?” Shadow asked, shutting the door and pushing Vio over to the bed.

”Nothing,” he said, putting on his usual deadpan.

Shadow cupped his chin and tilted his head, as if trying to find that smile again. He hummed and let go. “My poor Vi...did he touch you anywhere else? Did he hurt you?”

”Well, he hasn’t drugged me.”

Shadow ignored his comment and continued to examine Vio. “Are you okay, love? Show me where he touched you, angel. If you want, I can go down there and make sure he never lays a finger on you again.” Vio shoved him away. 

”He didn’t do anything,” Vio said.

”Oh, but he did! I saw him, he was touching you...or...did you initiate that? Vi, love...did you want five minutes alone with him so you could try to cheat on me?” Shadow cupped his face again. “Oh, Vi...why would you do something like that? I know you’re angry with me, but I get angry with you and I don’t go fuck Blue.”

”I didn’t fuck Blue!” He shouted, his face going scarlet. “Whatever you think you saw, that wasn’t what was happening!”

”But you’re blushing! Do you love him?”

”No! I’m blushing because I’m embarrassed, that doesn’t mean anything, I don’t love him!”

”But you keep saying you don’t love me, and I know that’s not true, so how do I know you mean it this time? Vio, I love you so much...but you cannot cheat on me! Why don’t I go back down there and get Blue’s opinion on this, I’m sure I could get that idiot to admit something.” His tone seemed to imply that he’d get Blue to admit to something that wasn’t true.

He felt panic rise into his chest and he grabbed Shadow. “No, I don’t love him, I-I love you!” Without another word, he slammed his mouth onto Shadow’s, just needing to convince Shadow.

Shadow pulled away, looking very convinced. “Alright then, love. I guess I could just look at what the two of you were doing...” He shook his head and grabbed something off the nearby table. Vio saw the glass of water. “Your mouth felt a little dry, Vio. Aren’t you thirsty?”

”I don’t love you that much,” Vio said, leaning away.

”Come on, angel, you need water.” Shadow’s eyes were soft, all of a sudden. “I didn’t drug it, here—“ He pressed his mouth to the rim and tilted his head back, drinking some of the water. When he stopped, the glass was about half-empty.

Vio hesitated, but accepted the glass and drank the rest. He seriously wished Shadow hadn’t drank that other half of the glass, his mouth still felt dry. He sighed and let Shadow take the glass away, setting it back down on the table.

”I need to go do something, darling,” he said, softly. “I’ll be back really soon, okay?” He pressed his lips to Vio’s cheek quickly. “Be good while I’m gone, okay, Vi?” He didn’t really wait for an answer before he left. Vio sighed and sat down on the bed. He could probably do some reading, but he didn’t want to run out of books, because all he really did that didn’t involve sleeping or Shadow was read. But there was something inside him that wanted him to move.

 _Where does Shadow even go?_ he wondered. He looked at the shard of glass on the table. He’d really only been using it to look at the others—what else could it show him?

It rippled when he picked it up, like always. Shadow was sitting on a stone floor, his back against a wall, his hand in his tights and eyes shut. Vio felt himself blush. Shadow opened his mouth in a small, silent moan, tilting his head back. It clicked he was right outside of the room Vio was in. Did he always do that...?

Vio frowned. Shadow was being remarkably quiet. His face was entirely red and he was clearly enjoying himself, but he didn’t make a noise. Shadow was never that quiet. Something lead him towards the door with the shard still in his hand. In the glass, Shadow had stopped touching himself to press his ear against the door next to him, clearly having heard his footsteps. He didn’t open the door, he crouched down and pressed his own ear to the wood, still keeping an eye on the shard.

Eventually, Shadow turned away from the door and kept doing what he was doing before, and while the shard made no noise, Vio could hear through the door if he strained his ears, panting and heavy breathing.

”Shit...Shit!” Vio pulled away from the door. He didn’t want to hear much more, he knew the truth now. He got to his feet and slowly went to the bed, grabbing a book and cracking it open.

He was three pages in when his head started getting fuzzy, his limbs heavy. He realized he let Shadow drug him again. As if on cue, the door opened and Shadow walked in, no longer mastrbating in the hallway. But he walked slowly, clearly trying to be careful. At one point, he nearly stumbled and fell, but barely caught himself. “Hey, Vio, what are you reading?”

”You bastard!” He nearly threw the book he had at him.

”Oh, come on—I drugged myself too!” It was practically a whine as he sat down on the bed next to Vio. “I just want you to relax, I just want to hold you, is that so bad?”

”It is when it’s against my will and you drug me to do it.” He couldn’t read anymore, his mind was too fuzzy.

Shadow yawned and laid down next to Vio, wrapping an arm around his waist. “I love you, I want to relax with you. You’re so cute.” He rested his head on Vio’s chest and sighed. “I love you, you’re perfect. Don’t you love me back?”

”Do you always sit in the hallway and give yourself a handjob when you leave?” Vio asked.

”Only this time, Vi. And I was thinking of you, and I knew you weren’t going to be willing to get me off. Do you masturbate? Do you think of me?”

Vio decided to stay quiet. Shadow didn’t seem to mind.


	11. Things Get Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Read the chapter title.

Vio must have passed out at some point. When he opened his eyes, he didn’t feel so lethargic. He sat up, only to find Shadow on the edge of the bed, holding a piece of glass.

“That’s not the Dark Mirror,” Vio said. Shadow was silent, so he kept going. “I assumed it was the Dark Mirror because it’s glass and it’s magic and you have it, and I saw what looked like the Dark Mirror when I tried to escape, but that’s not it. The Dark Mirror can make noise, that can’t.” There was a few beats of silence. “What is it?”

Shadow ignored those last three words. “You’re right, Vio. It’s not the Dark Mirror. It acts like it is, but it’s not. But, it’s still pretty useful. I can still look at things—and I don’t need sound to understand most of it.” He smiled, but it didn’t feel like a smile. It felt like he was just trying to show Vio his teeth, his pointed canines. “Why don’t you take a look at this, Vio?”

He swallowed and got closer to look at the glass. It just showed Vio and Blue in the dark, Vio examining his arm. “I already told you,” Vio said. “That means nothing. His arm was broken, I was looking at it.”

Shadow slowly nodded in that way that made it obvious he was still suspicious. The image rippled, another took it’s place, this one of Red hugging Vio. It could literally be at any time or any moment, Vio didn’t know when this was. “That’s just how Red is,” he said. “He hugs a lot—that doesn’t mean anything. You’re just acting jealous.”

He shook his head and sighed. “I tried, Vio. Look—I don’t think Red’s trying to steal you away, I was just trying to get you to fess up. If none of this means anything, does _this_ mean anything?”

For a final time, the image rippled, being replaced with another. Vio was ashamed to admit he knew this one. Him and Blue, in Blue’s room, Vio missing his tights, Blue his tunic, kissing passionately. There was no sound from the glass, but Vio heard it in his head, their moaning and Blue’s swears. Shadow kept the glass there for a long amount of time—it wasn’t just an image, it was bringing Vio back to the actual moment. He remembered Blue grabbing at him, he remembered kissing back, he remembered how Blue made all the pain go away for one night, only for the night to be swept under the rug and ignored. Vio’d be a liar if he said he didn’t think about it occasionally.

He tried to choke out an answer, Shadow watched him thoughtfully. “Yes, give me an excuse, I want to hear what you come up with—I’m dying to know why Blue’s tongue is down your throat.” They were still going at it, grabbing at each other’s clothes—Blue’s mouth had long left Vio’s and was trailing kisses on his jaw and throat and shoulder.

“It...Shadow, it was just once...” He blushed.

He nodded. “Vio, I’m almost done.”

“Wh-What?”

“I’m almost done. With this relationship, with you, I’m getting so sick of this. I love you, you know, I love you so much and I really want to believe we’re just going through a rough patch, but...” He shook his head.

“Shadow,” he said, softly. “You were dead. Blue was just comforting me—“

Shadow continued to hold the glass in front of Vio’s face. He had gotten on his knees in front of Blue and was taking his tights off. “Is that how you comfort people?”

“I—“

“No, watch. Watch this, it gets worse.”

Vio already knew what was going to happen.

He took Blue into his mouth and sucked for at least two minutes before Blue grabbed him by the hair and pulled him into a kiss. And Vio got on his lap.

“Shadow,” Vio said.

“No.” He was getting angrier. “Keep watching.”

He looked back at the shard of the mirror; Vio was riding Blue. Shadow was watching him and Blue have sex and he could feel him getting more angry by the minute. He saw Blue’s lips move and knew what he was saying. He seriously couldn’t watch any more—he looked away.

“What did he say to you?” Shadow demanded. He grabbed Vio’s chin and made him look at him. _”What did he say to you?”_

Vio swallowed. “Shadow, y—“

“Answer me.” He was shaking with barely suppressed rage. “Answer me or I’ll throw you out of that window, right now.”

“He...” Vio’s face flushed and he looked at his knees. “He said he loved me.”

“And...” Vio’s heart was pounding in his chest. “What did you say back to him?”

His mouth was so dry. “I said I loved him too.”

Shadow threw the shard at a wall—it burst into a thousand tinier shards. “Of course you fucking did! Is this why you’ve been so quick to anger all the time? Been fucking your new boyfriend so much he’s rubbed off on you?”

Vio bit his tongue, but Shadow grabbed his chin again. “I’m gonna put this simply, Vio, because you aren’t stupid. I separated Blue from the others. He’s in a cell all by himself and since apparently, you love him so much, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you don’t want me to murder him or starve him to death. So, you’re gonna do exactly as I say, alright? If I give you a glass of water and you don’t drink it because you think I’m gonna drug you, he isn’t going to get any water or food. If you act like an absolute dick and try to infuriate me, I’m gonna go take my anger out on your boyfriend, and if you do anything like, I don’t know, cut my throat open in an attempt to escape—I’m gonna torture him to death _in front of you._ I’m going to hurt him so bad and so good, I’m going to break him and you’re going to watch, and maybe that will teach you not to run from me. You’re going to do exactly as I say, and you’re going to love me and be happy and never leave me. Do I make myself clear, Vio?”

“Yes.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to calm his racing heart.

“Good.” He paused, as if maybe he was done monologing. “And I’ll let you see him, but if you ever—and I really mean ever, Vio—ask me to leave you alone with him, I will strip you down and fuck the shit out of you in front of him, even if you don’t want me to. I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“What about Red and Green?”

“Depends; can you keep it in your pants, or are you going to try and fuck one of them too? Or are you gonna fuck both of them?”

“Shadow, I—“

“Stop talking, Vio. This is when you apologize for acting like a whore and fucking Blue and beg me to give you another chance with our relationship.” He moved some hair out of his eyes. “Go on, now, before I go beat the fuck out of your _boyfriend._ ”

He swallowed. “I’m sorry, Shadow.”

“For?”

“I’m sorry for sleeping with Blue.”

He shook his head. “Not good enough. I’m looking for ‘I’m sorry I was such a slut and allowed Blue to fuck me when I love you a thousand times more.’ Say that and maybe I won’t make you sleep in the corner with the spiders.”

He swallowed his pride, something Shadow was clearly getting enjoyment out of. “I’m sorry for being such a slut and allowing Blue to fuck me when I love you a thousand times more. It was stupid and I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Shadow closed his eyes. “And?”

“And...I love you so much more. I’m sorry for being like this, just...please. Give me another chance.”

“That doesn’t feel like begging. Get on your knees.” He smirked. “You know, like you did for Blue when you were sucking him off.”

Vio exhaled slowly and knelt in front of him, grabbing onto one of his hands. “Please, Shadow. Give me another chance, please. I won’t do anything like this ever again, just please.”

He sighed. “How could I say no to someone I love so much? You’re too cute to be on your knees.” He stroked Vio’s cheek slowly. “And to think...I’ve been kissing you all this time, unaware you put someone else’s dick in your mouth.” There was something in Shadow’s eyes. “You never put _my_ dick in your mouth.”

“I never got the chance to,” he stammered out. “I will, I’ll do anything for you, Shadow, just please...”

His expression softened and he cupped Vio’s face with an alarming gentleness. “Oh, Vio...it’s so difficult to stay mad at you.” He kissed the tip of his nose as if he hadn’t been angry to begin with. “My angel...” His touch suddenly wasn’t so gentle. “Mine. All mine. I don’t share.”

”Right, Shadow.” He swallowed. “I-I’m yours.”

”Perfect.” He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “I need to go do some things—you stay here and be good, and when I’ll get back, I’ll do you, okay, love?”

”Okay.” His voice sounded way too soft, even to himself, but Shadow didn’t comment on it.

”Good boy.” He kissed Vio on the cheek softly, but didn’t remove his lips for a minute. He grabbed Vio’s hips and leaned his forehead against his. “I love you, Vi. You’re perfect and mine and that’s never gonna change.” He pulled away suddenly, sighing. “I’ll be back soon, Vi!”

He still seemed reluctant to leave, but he did leave. Vio sighed and tried to digest what had just happened.  _Way to fucking go, dickhead. You pissed off your clearly unstable, abusive boyfriend except he’s not your boyfriend, what the fuck is wrong with you?_ It was so obvious what had happened, but at the same time, nothing felt real. Vio had felt some sort of comfort, knowing that while he was seperated from the others and they were injured in a cell in the dark, they were together. Now, Blue was entirely alone, probably more injured, and if Vio pissed Shadow off again, the chance of Blue getting hurt for it definitely seemed more than likely. How was he going to explain what had happened to Blue and why Blue was seperated from the others and why Vio couldn’t be alone with him? “Hey, Blue, remember that one time when we had sex? Well, now Shadow knows about it and thinks I’m a whore, so he’s using you as leverage to keep me in place, and if I ask him to leave me alone with you, he says he’ll basically rape me in front of you. Sorry for condemning all of us by being a hormonal teenager who can’t keep it in his pants.”

Actually, Blue would probably understand. He had gotten slightly more understanding, he knew when to calm himself down and keep his anger in a bottle. Most of the time.

He sighed and laid down on the bed.  _Well, this is it. I’m gonna die. Probably not now, but at some point, Shadow’s gonna snap and kill us all and it’s all my fault. It’s a matter of time._

He tried to calm himself, but he was actually, already decently calm. He wasn’t in hysterics, so he figured that was calm. Plus, being in hysterics really didn’t matter at this point, so if he lost it he’d be fine.

 _How do I not have a concussion?_ Vio wondered, pressing his fingers to the back of his head. _I can’t get a concussion, but I can get hypothermia?_ He frowned.

He remembered Shadow, lying on his back, dying...He had seemed so...good, then. He hadn’t bee angry, he had just looked tired and perfect. He had looked almost happy...Vio never would have guessed Shadow’d come back to life to hold him and the other Link’s captive.

He sighed. Everything was hopeless. Shadow was crazy, Vio was dead, and everything sucked.

...How was Shadow still alive, though? What had he done with Vio’s sword, and the others? If the mirror wasn’t the Dark Mirror, what was it? How would Shadow react to these questions? In his head, he saw a black shape and he didn’t know what it was.

He found himself looking under the bed and grabbing the book full of pictures. He flipped to a random page—a silhouette in charcoal, it seemed, a weird shape filled entirely in black. Vio swore he had seen it before. He looked over at the shattered glass from when Shadow had snapped and thrown it and it clicked—the charcoal shaped matched the shape of the glass perfectly—before it had been smashed at least. Did glass usually look like that when it broke?

Vio closed his eyes. He needed to rest. Maybe he’d piece everything together later.


	12. Finally—Some Plot and Not Just Violence and Sex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow wants to fuck Vio—Vio is angry and is not in the mood. All progress towards communication is lost, but hey, at least the other Links are okay!

He woke up to feel Shadow’s lips on his own, a pair of hands resting on his hips as he was further pulled into a rough kiss. He opened his eyes and almost pushed Shadow off, but he remembered what Shadow had said before, and that stopped him. Vio wasn’t entirely sure if Shadow meant to use Blue to get him to coerce with all his actions—a part of him felt like Shadow would at least be able to understand that that was bad, and another part felt that Shadow was already fucking psychotic so he could eat a living kitten whole and he wouldn’t question it. He decided not to push his luck

After a small eternity, Shadow pulled away and yanked his belt off. “Oh, Vio, I love you so fucking much.” He pulled off his tunic and undershirt all at once and pressed his mouth against the side of his face—his cheek, his jaw, his ear. “You’re so fucking hot.”

“Shadow...” Shadow didn’t seem to hear him, already unlacing Vio’s boots just to grab his face again and kiss him harder, more forceful, more needy.

“All mine...” Shadow started sucking on his bottom lip slowly. His hands found their way onto Vio’s torso to trace small patterns into the warm skin. Just as slowly, he sank his teeth into Vio’s lip and lapped at the blood.

He honestly didn’t know what to do. Obviously, he couldn’t struggle or say no, and deal with Shadow’s wrath, but he didn’t entirely know if he wanted to kiss back or encourage Shadow. He wasn’t sure if he should wrap his legs around his waist—just laying there and letting it happen felt wrong, but so did everything else.

He tried to distract himself, to think about anything other than Blue with his injured arm, in a dark cell by himself, or the surely confused and frightened Red and Green in their cell, possibly not knowing why Blue wasn’t in there, or what had happened to Vio. Actually, Vio didn’t know if they had even woke up—Blue definitely would have told them what had happened if they woke up, but had they woken up before Shadow moved Blue to another cell? ...Were they even capable of waking up? Were they even alive?

Vio shivered as Shadow trailed kisses down his neck to his shoulder, where he bit down roughly until Vio gave a small cry of pain. He was almost thankful for that—he tore his thoughts away from what he was trying to avoid.

But what about Zelda, who they had all known since their childhood, when they were just one Link? She probably noticed by now that something had become of the four, and hell, Vio knew how she worked—she’d send a ton of people out in search of even just one of them. She must have been panicking if all four were gone. What if something bad happened and none of them were there to stop it? What about their father? He had been so understanding about having four sons, was he upset now that they had gone missing? Was he looking for them? What had become of Poppy, who Shadow had claimed to hurt so much worse than Erune? Was Erune okay, was she aware they were all missing? Was something like word of the Heroes of the Four Swords strange disappearance bound to travel so quickly, or did no one really care? Was there any chance of any of them being found?

Shadow’s mouth latched onto one of his nipples and he groaned. Nothing made any sense, Vio had no answers.

And he didn’t know if he should be turned on or scared.

Shadow sucked hard on his other nipple, but pulled away quickly to glare at Vio. “You’re just gonna lay there while I pleasure you?” Vio was still thinking, so he snapped his fingers in front of his face, bringing Vio back to the present. “Were you ignoring me, Vi?” He demanded. “I asked you a question—are you going to answer it?”

Vio blinked. That sounded strangely familiar.

“Are you even listening to me?” He asked.

“Yes,” Vio responded. He was thinking back to Poppy and what she had said way before. “What did you ask again?”

Shadow backhanded him angrily. At some point, he had gone topless, but Vio wasn’t sure when. “No, no, no, Vio—you heard me perfectly. You know damn well what the question was—are you going to fucking answer it?”

“I didn’t mean that question,” Vio said. “I meant the one before.”

There was a heartbeat of silence. “We are not talking about that, Vio—I’m asking you a question now and you’re going to answer this one. I’m about to give you the best fucking of your pathetic life and you’re just gonna lay here and do nothing? Are you even—“ He didn’t finish and instead just grabbed at Vio’s crotch. “Oh, come on! You got harder than this when I figured out you were a backstabbing traitor.”

“I wasn’t hard at all then.”

“Exactly.” He squeezed, as if hoping that’d make him harder. “Now, are you just going to lay there, Vio?”

His mind was buzzing, his heart was pounding. “Yes.”

It took Shadow by surprise definitely. “What?”

“You asked if I was just gonna lay here. Yes, I am, because I don’t want this and I’m struggling to get hard when you’re threatening me and my family because you’re so fucking possessive. So, yeah, I’m not in the mood since I’m being held against my will.”

“You know, you could have stopped after ‘I don’t want this,’ and I would have stopped.” He huffed and grabbed his tunic from the floor.

“You’re fucking crazy,” Vio said.

Shadow took a shaky breath. “Vio, remember what I said earlier about Blue? How if you do and say shit like this to piss me off, I’ll go take my anger out on him? I really meant that.”

“I don’t think he’s actually here,” Vio said.

“And why,” he remarked. “My dearest, darling, lovely, perfect Vio, would you ever think that?”

“Because I don’t think you’re here. I don’t think you’re alive, I...” He paused and then nodded, deciding he had to be true. “I don’t think you’re Shadow.”

It started as a chuckle, but became full blown laughter. Loud peals seemed to echo off the walls. “What makes you think that, Vi? Please, illuminate all this for me, because I don’t have the slightest idea why you’d come to this stupid ass conclusion.”

“I don’t even think I’m here.”

Shadow snorted.

“I think, if things were how you claim them to be, you’d be a lot more gentle, because at this point, I’ve gotten hypothermia, I’ve gotten knocked out, I’ve hit my head how many times? By all means, I should have some sort of trauma to my body, and yet—I’m still able to move, and speak, and think, and my injuries always turn out to be basically harmless in the end. You keep talking about how much you love me and how you don’t want me to leave, but...” He took a deep breath. He had been speaking without breathing. “If I was actually in danger of bodily harm, you’d be a lot more careful with me. My chance of escape is much lower than the chances of you killing me.”

”What are you implying, my love?” His voice was surprisingly gentle.

”I’m implying that you’re a liar and you’re no better than me—you say you remember everything from the fire temple, do you remember everything after the fire temple?”

“I remember you and the other stupid heroes killed me,” he snapped.

”You mentioned how you made yourself look like me, but do you remember anything else besides that?”

”...I remember dying.”

”Do you remember anything between looking like me and dying, though?”

Shadow frowned and shook his head. “It’s all blurry.”

“Likely story.”

“You seriously think that I’m some sort if imposter? What, do you think a stranger fell in love with you and decided to impersonate me in an attempt to get you to love him?” He rolled his eyes. “You’re perfect, but not that perfect. You’re a fucking traitor.”

“What was the question?” He asked. “The question before?”

Shadow inhaled deeply. “I asked you if you regretted it. I asked you if you regretted betraying me. And...And you said no.” He got closer and grabbed Vio’s chin. “You don’t regret it, do you, Vi?” His tone was low, and alarms were going off in his head. “And I’ll let you in on a little secret, my love...” He ran a hand through Vio’s hair. “You’re absolutely right. I can hurt you—I can break every single bone in your body and you won’t die.” His grip in his hair was getting tighter. “I mean, I’ve already thought about finding a mallet and breaking your legs, you know. As punishment for betraying you. Sometimes, I dream about tying you down and slamming a hammer into your legs.” He breathed deeply again, but this time seemed to be inhaling Vio’s scent. He could feel his breath tickling his ear. “I break everything from your ankles and your heels to your pelvis.” He placed a hand on his hip. “I watch your thighs bruise and I listen to you scream and beg me to stop. Usually, you get one of your bonds off and I just grab onto your wrist...” He moved his hand and wrapped his fingers around his wrists. Vio’s breath hitched in his throat. “And hold your arm down...” He placed his other hand on Vio’s chest and pushed him down on the bed, flush against the mattress so he could hold his arm down. “And I break that too. And you scream louder, but you stop struggling so you can keep your other arm.” He grabbed ahold of the other one too. “But you know what?” He was grinning. “I break that one too. And you scream more and I break you more and I consider taking the head of the hammer to your chest and stomach and your skull. Sometimes, I just slam it into your temple and you’re out like a light. No more screaming. Your tears dry. Your blood dries.” He moaned lewdly. “It’s so fucking erotic, Vio. In the best ones, you promise to never leave me and you apologize and you cry and I ride you and you scream some more and it’s so fucking good. It makes me so hard...”

“You’re insane,” Vio spat. He could feel Shadow’s arousal right against his thigh, pulsing and throbbing. He decided this wasn’t his Shadow—he felt little to no guilt about insulting him.

“Maybe,” Shadow laughed. “Oh, goddesses, Vio, you’re absolutely, right—I can do anything I want to you, but you won’t die. I can injure you as much as I please, you won’t die. You aren’t in any actual danger. Again. I never put you in any danger.

“The truth is, Vi, you aren’t actually here. Is that what you want to hear? Your consciousness is here with mine, and your real body is back in Hyrule, safe and sound and alive, but... your consciousness is here. It _is_ mine. _You’re_ mine. And nothing is going to change that. But you know what, you can still feel pain. I think the best part about this is I can—for example—tie you up, fuck the shit out of you and slit your throat and you’ll live. I can waterboard you. I can throw you out of that window. I can take your belt off of you, strip you down and beat you until you’re entire body matches my hair. I can cut you open, gut you like a fish and tear your heart out and eat it in front of you. I can slam your head into the wall until your skull shatters and the shards of bone cut your head up and covers my hands in your blood.

“But you’re safe! Your body’s back in Hyrule! But what does that mean if you can’t get back.”

“There aren’t any exits, are there?” Vio asked.

“I still have to punish you for trying to escape,” Shadow shrugged.

“But the drugs, the—“

“Are you done talking yet?”

“What about the others?” Vio whispered. “Shadow—“

He slammed his mouth onto Vio’s—but that seemed more like a way to get him to shut up. “I know you have questions, love—but I’m done answering them. Right now, I think we need to discuss how bad you’ve been and how we’re going to deal with that.” He tried to part Vio’s lips with his tongue—but he kneed Shadow in the groin and that caused him to pull away.

“Alright then. I’m very hard right now, so I’ll give you a choice, Vi—you can remind me how good you are in bed and get me off and I’ll be really gentle with you when I punish you, or I can leave, go get a few...” He licked his lips and stroked Vio’s neck once. “...supplies and be really mean to you.”

“What happened to the whole using Blue as leverage thing?” Vio asked. “Is he not—“

Shadow kneed him in the groin and wrapped his hands around his throat. “I told you to make a fucking decision.”

“You can not get me to have sex with you after ranting about how hot the dream about torturing me makes you.”

“Fine, then.” He grabbed Vio by the hair and dragged him back to the corner, with the chains and the spiders but Vio didn’t care too much about the spiders. They couldn’t hurt him. Shadow couldn’t hurt him. The reason Vio didn’t want to be in that corner was because he was topless and the corner was cold, he tried to convince himself. “I’ll be back in a minute, Vi.”

He was much longer than a minute.

“You’re lucky I didn’t grab that hammer like I thought about,” he said, coming back. Vio saw the bulge in between his legs but somehow, didn’t blush. “I would have, but I think I’ll save that for when you’ve been bad enough for me to waterboard you. I’ll waterboard you and shatter your legs like glass, that’ll teach you.”

“You keep saying you’ll waterboard me, but you have yet to actually do so—I don’t think you actually will.”

“Do you want me to, Vi? Because I can do it if you want me to.”

Vio stayed silent.

“Good boy. Now, what should I do to you first?” He laid a bunch of things down in front of Vio and seemed to ponder about which one to pick up. He picked up one and Vio saw little more than a metal glint before he decided what to do. He grabbed the knife he saw and launched himself at Shadow. The chains he was in mostly held him back, but it didn’t stop him from slashing the air near Shadow. He landed a horizontal slice over his abdomen before Shadow grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the wall. He didn’t stop when Vio dropped the knife. He tried to struggle, but at some point, his struggling tangled the chains and prevented him from struggling.

“I didn’t know you like knives so much, Vi!” He said when he finally let go of his hair. His head was spinning, he was dizzy and the back of his head was sticky with blood. He pinched at one of Vio’s nipples and sighed. “You know, back at the fire temple, I just stared at your chest for hours and drooled over how perfect it was.” He grabbed at his crotch and rubbed at it for a minute before cutting into Vio—right below his right nipple to his navel. He did it slowly and deep as he dared to go. Vio bit his tongue to avoid making any noise.

“Come on, love—I like those sounds you make.” He rubbed his erection a little more through his clothes, closing his eyes and sighing. “You’re gonna bleed all over yourself if I’m not careful.” He set the knife down and picked up something else—a lighter.

Vio struggled some more. “Get the fuck away from me.”

“Nah.” Vio’s eyes widened at the small flame that appeared. “Oh, Vi, come on, this is nothing to what you’ve done to me. Betrayal, murder—you’ve hurt me so bad, and you think I’m gonna feel bad because I’m giving you what, a second degree burn, maybe?” He held it close to the skin he cut and watched it redden, listening to the noises Vio made as he struggled.

“Shadow, stop!”

“Make me!”

He shoved him away and managed to burn Shadow with his own lighter. He put it away—and then completely removed his tights.

Vio turned his head, but he still heard Shadow’s moaning, and his panting, and his swearing. “Shit, I’m so...I’m so close!” He forced Vio’s head back and kissed him—Vio bit his tongue harder than he usually did. Shadow actually cried out this time when he pulled away, but didn’t stop pumping himself. “Fucking hell, Vio...” He groaned—and came all over the floor.

Vio struggled some more. “You’re a disgusting, pitiful shadow!” He shouted.

He felt Shadow’s nails dig into his skin. “You’re all mine, Vio. I know I can’t kill you, but I’m not quite done hurting you, yet.”

“Please,” he spat. “You’re pathetic. I’ll never be yours if you keep me here! You hurt fucking _Red,_ what kind of heartless monster hurts Red! I’ll never forgive you and I’ll never love you!” Shadow’s knuckles to his jaw kept him from continuing.

“Never say never, angel.” He felt his lips brush over his cheek. “Now then, what else do I want to do to you besides make you shut up?” He grabbed a lock of Vio’s hair and sniffed it. “Oh, Vio, why do you have to be so bad?”

He saw something flicker in Shadow’s eyes as he picked up the knife. “Love...” He said slowly, as if he was rolling the word around his mouth and tasting it. “Remember when you tried to say our relationship is toxic and I threatened to cut out your tongue?” Vio didn’t say anything—his mouth was suddenly dry. He heard Shadow chuckle. “Open up.”

 

Blue heard the scream, even from his cell so far away from Vio. The worst part was that it had sounded so strangled and ended way too quickly. And he recognized the voice as Vio’s.

Panic set in.

In moments, Shadow was in front of his cell, dragging a half-conscious, half-clothed Vio by the hair who was definitely _trying_ to struggle. He opened the door and threw Vio in before slamming it shut, not seeming to care Vio had landed on his face. Blue was already trying to help Vio get up when Shadow shot him a death glare. “Don’t touch him. You think I don’t know my Vio’s been a whore recently?”

“Don’t call Vio a whore, you’re a whore! What the fuck did you do to him?”

He grinned. “Why don’t you ask Vio about that.” Vio got to his feet. “Hey, Vio, tell Blue what I’ve been doing to you. Go on. What did I do, love?”

He made some sort of choking noise.

Shadow cackled. Blue saw the blood pouring out of Vio’s mouth. Shadow threw something on the ground of the cell and he gagged when he saw what it was. 

“You son of a bitch!” He shouted.

“It’s what he get’s for having his tongue down someone else’s throat.” He sounded angry, his hands were covered in blood and left scarlet drying in Vio’s hair. “Maybe had he shut up and been good, I would have let him keep his tongue, but he just didn’t shut up.”

”So you’re gonna let him bleed to death?”

He rolled his eyes. “He won’t die. Will you, Vi?”

Vio was totally silent.

Shadow chuckled. “Oh, love, why do you have to be like this?” He turned his attention towards Vio completely. “I’m so sorry, angel, but you’re being so bad. I think we have to go on a break, darling, more for you than me. You’ve been acting so different.” He shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later, when you’re ready. Or, rather, I’ll talk and you’ll be a good boy and listen to me.”

Judging from the death glare, Vio shot him, Blue could only guess what he wanted to say—a bunch of insults.

”Lay a fucking hand on him and I’ll chop it off.” Shadow’s attention turned back to him. “I don’t care if he’s being a bitch, he’s _my_ bitch. Not yours.”

”You’re the bastard that cut out his fucking tongue, but you’re worried about me touching him.”

”Love you, Vivi,” he murmured. “I’ll be back later, okay?”

Blue waited until he left before helping Vio. “What the fuck did he do to you?” Vio could not answer. “Holy shit. Did he actually—“ He looked back down at the object on the floor—a tongue, covered in blood. “Goddesses, Vio...” He had no idea what to do. Comfort him? He had never been good at consoling people and something told him trying to comfort Vio after getting his tongue cut out was going to be way too difficult for him—it had always been more of Red’s thing, he knew how to comfort people. He jus grabbed Vio and pulled him over to the wall, sitting him down and making him lean against the wall. He tried to say something, but Blue just shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

He went totally silent, clearly giving up. There was still a ton of blood. Vio was still covered in bruises, his torso had a large cut in it and a burn, his eyes still kept going to the horrible mark around Vio’s neck.

He tried to think of anything to say, anything to fill the awful silence. “The others are okay,” he swallowed. “They woke up right after you left. Later, Shadow just...appeared and started rambling about you—I...I think I knew what he was talking about. I was screaming my explanation to them while he dragged me out of the cell.”

Again, Vio tried to respond, but then remembered he didn’t have a tongue anymore.

”They’re okay, I think. I told them I saw you before Shadow arrived, and said you were okay.”

He shook his head frantically—Blue couldn’t tear his eyes away from the amount of blood all over his lips and chin. He kept shaking his head. 

”What? Do you mean...you’re not okay?”

Vio sighed and sunk to the floor.

”I don’t know what that means,” Blue sighed also, sitting next to him. Vio continued to make sounds Blue couldn’t begin to understand and when he just stared blankly at him, he finally, actually gave up, pulling his knees to his chest and staring off into space. Still unsure of what to do, Blue patted his head, hoping maybe that’d help. “I promise, when we get out of here, I’ll rip Shadow limb from limb for doing this.” _When._ He sounded so hopeful. He felt none of that hope, he just felt anger.


	13. Bitch, I Don’t Know What To Name This, Some Shit Happens.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some shit happens.

Vio couldn’t get to sleep. A part of him felt like everything was a dream, Shadow’s actions a nightmare, and maybe that was why he couldn’t close his eyes, while Blue, next to him, could. He had wanted to tell Blue to get away from him, because Shadow had clearly proven that he could act on his threats just fine, and the last thing he wanted was to watch Blue lose a hand because Shadow was a jealous prick.

He had to keep reminding himself that Shadow had admitted it—there was no risk of bodily harm to Vio, even when Shadow straddled his chest, pried his mouth open and sawed through his tongue.

He still remembered gasping on the floor, choking on his own blood, Shadow grabbing him by the hair and kissing him. Shadow had licked inside of Vio’s mouth, savoring all the blood that fell on his lips, hot and sweet, only to pull away, rubbing at his lips with his sleeve. He pulled away and tried to get as far away as he could from Shadow. “Oh, come on, Vi—you think this is bad? I’m not gonna be able to make out with you like I did before.”

He tried to insult him, but he made some sort of choking, gasping noise instead of words. It wasn’t Hyrulean, that he knew.

“Oh, Vio...” He could still feel Shadow’s hands, stroking his cheek, even hours after. “My perfect Vio—this is why you shouldn’t piss me off. How many times did I warn you, hm? I told you to stop—now you can’t talk. No more questions, no more insults, no more of those smart ass comments.”

Vio shivered in his cell. He felt like he had to ask Blue if his consciousness was there too, and also, what the hell that meant. _Who am I kidding, Blue doesn’t know. I didn’t even know._ He leaned back until his head hit the wall. _Maybe we’re just all going crazy, maybe I’m just as crazy as Shadow._

He was so cold—did Shadow seriously have to keep his tunic?

Next to him, Blue sighed and rubbed at his eyes, waking up with a swear. “We’re still fucking in here,” he said.

Vio didn’t say anything. He was starting to regret provoking Shadow. The inside of his mouth felt weird without a tongue. _Am I just going to live the rest of my days mute?_ He thought. The idea didn’t appeal to him. But of course, it was just his consciousness, and his real body was fine, or something like that. He seriously wished he had had a bit more clarification on that.

“Are you okay, Vio? I mean, other than the fact that you’re clearly not okay, you’re okay, right?”

He shrugged. Shadow had said that he’d come back later, but later could have been days from then. He just did what he wanted.

“...I feel like you should be making one of your sarcastic remarks right now, and the fact that you’re not bothers me more than the literal organ on the floor.”

_When did you learn the tongue was an organ, Blue?_ Vio smiled.

“Did you...sleep at all last night?”

Vio shook his head.

“Jeez, Vio...” He ran a hand through his hair and then, wrapped an arm around Vio, bringing him closer and making him lean on him like a pillow.

For a moment, Vio struggled, remembering what Shadow had said to Blue, but he must have read his mind. “I don’t care what he said, Vio. He doesn’t scare me. Just get some rest.”

He decided he didn’t have much to do besides rest. Ideally, he’d talk with Blue, about what happened and what he knew, but that was out of the question until Vio magically gained the intelligence and supplies to surgically reattach the tongue on the floor back in his mouth. Remembering what he read from his books, the tongue was an organ meaning it’d “heal,” or “regrow” or something similar, and it was still possible, he thought, to talk without a tongue, he was pretty sure he had read about people who could, but that was after years and years of learning. He hadn’t even been tongueless for twenty four hours. And yet, he was still getting stir crazy.

He sighed and leaned into Blue. He was warm at least, and pretty sane, and Vio didn’t have to worry about Blue spontaneous killing or molesting him while he slept. He fell asleep way too easily.

 

_”Did...you guys...hear that?” Blue asked, turning to them. Red sat with Erune, Green was still standing, but they were all looking up at the stairs._

_”What was that?” Erune asked. She had stopped bleeding and Red had patched her up._

_”I think it came from Vio’s room,” Blue said. He was already running up the stairs. Some, stupid, part of him hoped Vio was just in his room, he had managed to get in. He was totally fine, just sitting on his bed and reading. Nothing was in Vio’s room, but when he was about to go back downstairs, he noticed his bedroom door was ajar. It hadn’t been when he left his room._

_He moved without the slightest hesitation inside._

_Shadow sat on his bed, twirling his hammer in his hands and wearing a smirk. “Hello, Blue. Long time no see.” He realized he didn’t bring his sword with him, instead it was downstairs. Shadow saw him reach for his sword, though. “Still as quick to anger as ever, I see. You know, Vio’s been rather...short tempered with me...I don’t suppose you have anything to do with that, do you?”_

_”Maybe he just doesn’t like you,” he said, his tone was cold. “Do you have him?”_

_”Mhm.” He twirled the hammer in is hands one final time. “I also have a weapon. I’ll cut to the chase, I know you slept with him.”_

_”That’s none of your business.”_

_”Oh, then, his location is none of your business.”_

_”You bastard, where the fuck is he?”_

_He bit his lip. “Asleep. Probably really sore too, I was pretty rough with him last night.” He smirked. “I need him to know he’s mine and not yours—I think he knows now.”_

_”What the fuck did you do?!” He shouted._

_Shadow started counting on his fingers. “Kissed him, blew him, fucked him, rode him, I think there was a fifth thing somewhere in there—you know, nothing you haven’t done to him. I can’t believe my Vio was such a slut! Did you pay him?” He chuckled. “I already know the two of you had sex, so don’t bother denying it—how dare you try to take my Vio away from me?”_

_”I’m not taking him away, you were dead. How are you not dead now?”_

_”Maybe I never was.” He sighed. “I was just dropping in, getting a couple gifts for my love.” He showed Blue the book he had in his hand. “He’s very mad.”_

_”...At you?”_

_”Trouble in paradise,” he sighed. “I love him more than anything, but I messed up and I hurt him. So to make it up to him, I’m just...bringing him a couple things. To make him happier. To remind him about how much I love him. I know, he loves this book, but I can only think of three other things he might want right now.”_

_”To get away from you?”_

_”That’s one thing, not three, dumbass.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why, but...if it makes him happy.” It suddenly clicked what ‘three things’ Shadow was talking about._

_”Green! Red!” He shouted, already going back towards the door. He regretted staying there so long._

_”Not so fast!” He slammed Blue’s hammer into his ankle just hard enough to bruise and make him fall. “Where do you think you’re going? You fucked him, but you don’t care about him, huh?”_

_”At least I’m not holding him captive!” Blue shouted. “Red! Green!”_

_”Please...he likes it. You know, if it wouldn’t upset Vio, I would just take this hammer to your head and kill you.” He brought the head crashing down—but it landed on his arm. “Vio’s the only thing keeping you alive. You be sure to thank him for that later.”_

_”Fuck you! Red! Gree—“ The ‘n’ sound never left his lips._

 

Vio woke to the sound of hurried footsteps. Shadow was little more than a black blur as he came into the cell, but Vio knew it was Shadow, because he was currently grabbing Blue by the front of the tunic and pulling him away.

“I told you not to fucking touch him! Do you think he’s some sort of whore?”

“You’ve been calling him a whore nonstop!”

“Yeah, well, he’s my whore—get your own!”

He immediately straightened.

“You’re fucking crazy! There’s nothing between us!”

“Were you about to fuck him? I swear to your stupid goddesses, I’ll fucking murder you—look, you woke him up!” Shadow let go of him and got closer to Vio—he couldn’t stop his cringe when he touched him. “My poor Vi...did he do anything to you? Show me where he touched you, love.”

Vio spat at him. Shadow took a deep breath and slapped him across the face. “Watch it.”

“I fucking said that if you fucking touched him, I’d cut off your hand—you’re lucky I don’t slit your fucking throat for this.”

Vio tried to say something, but nothing came out—they both noticed his attempt though. “Aw, what, Vi?” Shadow cooed. “Do you want me to take you out of this cell? What about you sleep in a bed? Let me finish up here, and maybe I can do that.”

He was shaking his head. _Blue, you can’t actually die. He can’t actually kill you. That’s why he didn’t die when I slit his throat._

“No? Do you want to stay here? Topless and covered in blood, you’re tongue on the floor...” He licked his lips as if there was something arousing about a tongue rotting on the floor. “I’m already regretting cutting your tongue—quit shaking your head at me!”

_Don’t hurt Blue, please!_

“Vio’s fucking mine! Just because you slept with him doesn’t mean you can change that.”

“I don’t want to change that—I’m dating Red and Green!”

“Damn, you get around—Vio, did you hear that, angel? He’s cheating on you! You’re okay with me hurting him then, right?”

Vio shook his head more frantically.

Shadow grinned. “No? You didn’t hear me?”

“He’s mute, not deaf.”

“Shut your fucking mouth! I know what he is—mine! And no short tempered, son of a bitch is gonna change that!” He pulled Vio to his feet and kissed him in front of Blue. “Come on, love—let’s go get you cleaned up.” He tried to struggle against Shadow. He wrapped his fingers around Vio’s wrist and tried to pull him away. “Come on! Let’s go! Fucking—“ He slapped him again and continued to drag him out.

When Vio got back to the bedroom, he had multiple new bruises.

“My poor Vivi...” He ran a hand through his hair and kissed his temple. “I know you’re angry, but you can’t fight me like this!” He shoved him on the bed. “You wait right there and I’ll go get you a piece of paper and a pen.”

The only thing on Vio’s mind was Blue—was Shadow going to hurt him?

He returned moments later with something to write with, a piece of paper and a damp cloth. “Let’s get that blood off your face, Vi...”He held still while Shadow scrubbed at his chin and bottom lip before he just dropped it on the floor and forced Vio’s mouth open again. He wanted to tell Shadow to stop now, more than ever, with Shadow’s hand on his jaw, and his thumb keeping it wide open. He sighed, but didn’t seem particularly upset about it.

Vio grabbed the piece of paper and one of the books Shadow had gotten him and used it to write on. He wrote quickly, feeling Shadow’s gaze rest on him.

“We can’t die, can we? You made me think that was just you, but it was me too,” he scribbled.

”No, Vi, we can’t die. But we can get injured. We’re somewhere between life and death, but we’re still very conscious. This is my afterlife.” The questioning look on his face was all Shadow needed. “You aren’t dead, Vi, technically. Well, you aren’t really alive. I don’t think it matters too much—you’re here and now, I’m in heaven with my lovely little angel. Could I ask for anything more?

“What about the others?” Vio asked.

”What about them?”

“Whatever we are—are they that too?” Shadow just shrugged in response. “You said you weren’t going to let me be alone with Blue, but you just left me alone with him for a long period of time.”

”I know, love, and I regret that—i told him not to touch you! Oh, Vi, did he hurt you? Here—“ He flipped the piece of paper over and started drawing something. He let Vio see when he was all done—the outline of a basic person. “Show me where he touched you.”

His face flushed. He grabbed the pen and paper and circled the upper arm, adding a “you’re a psycho,” for good measure.

”Love, this isn’t very clear—did he touch your chest?” He traced around Vio’s nipple with a finger. “You’re mine, though—do we need to go down there and explain that to him?”

Vio shook his head frantically. Shadow chuckled. “Whatever you say, Vio.”

Vio wrote more. “I want to see the others.”

”Maybe later, if you’re a good boy.”

He circled the sentence.

”I said ‘no,’ Vio. If you really want to see them, use your words, get on your knees and beg me.”

“Shadow, please—let me see them. I just want to know if they’re okay.”

”Vio, you have to say it aloud.”

He bristled. “I don’t have a fucking tongue.”

Shadow held up a finger and walked out the door. He came back holding something in his hand that he reached out to Vio. “Here.”

Vio gagged. _I’m gonna throw up._ He remembered reading that keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth would stop you from vomiting, but he didn’t have a tongue in his mouth—instead, it was in Shadow’s hand.

”Well, come on. I was so nice, I went back to that cell and picked this up for you, you have to accept it now.” He pressed it into Vio’s hand, who was trying very hard not to look at it. “Come on, Vi.”

_Does..._ Vio thought. _Does he want me to put this back in my mouth?_ He nearly vomited again—but he didn't have anything in his stomach besides some of the blood he swallowed earlier.

”Do you need help? Here.” He took it away again and pried Vio’s mouth open once more, placing it in quickly.

Black dots were swimming in his vision. His tongue was cold and still bloody—he almost wished he could taste the blood because that’d mean he still had use of that tongue. He was about to spit it out, but Shadow placed his hand over his mouth and tilted his head back so he was staring at the ceiling. “What do you say?”

He made a small whimpering sound before the organ got lodged in his throat. He choked and coughed—Shadow just watched, but eventually let go of him, letting him move his head.

But it was still there, cold as ice in his throat, unmoving. Finally, he managed to spit it out—

And directly back at Shadow.

_Holy fuck, I’m gonna pass out._ It fell back on the floor and Shadow sighed before picking it back up again. “Alright, Vio—I’m gonna give you another choice, and you get to make a decision, okay? I want to put something in your mouth. Is it going to be a) this tongue, or b) one of the spiders over there?”

Vio shook his head, he was seriously about to pass out.

”No, stay with me here—spider or tongue, your choice.”

_How is his dick not an option? Wouldn’t that be exactly something you’d expect, especially when you hear, ‘I want to put something in your mouth?’_ he thought, numbly. He shook his head again.

”Maybe both, then? Or...do you want a third option?”

_There it is..._ Vio shook his head more, but he was apparently no match for Shadow, who pried his mouth open again and placed it back in.

He got it out much quicker—and then immediately passed out. _Holy shit, holy shit, he’s crazy..._ He thought as everything went black.

 

Shadow sighed. Why did his Vio have to be like this? He had barely punished Vio like he said he would, so of course he wasn’t going to be gentle with him. Actually, he was beginning to think he had been too gentle with Vio at the beginning, that was why he was being like this, right? He hadn’t been clear, he hadn’t acted on his threats, so Vio thought he could act out without any consequences. It was Shadow’s own fault Vio had to be treated this way. He kissed Vio’s temple. Yes, that was it. His own fault. He had to mistreat Vio because he had been too weak to properly mistreat him before to show that he could mistreat him when he was bad.

Vio had a right to be angry about that, he decided, but it’d get him to stop, so it was worth it.

_He didn’t have to betray me,_ he thought. _And he couldn’t just enjoy this. I’m trying to make him happy and he doesn’t care. I’m trying to be good to him. I just want to love him! Why can’t he fucking let me love him!_ He got up and moved back to the corner, grabbing a spider and dropping it on Vio’s face. _Is it something to do with me?_

He wanted to hit something, but he decided not to hit Vio while he was asleep. Vio wasn’t doing anything right now, he was okay. He sat back down next to him and stroked his hair. The spider crawled all over his skin, a glossy, black spot on his love’s chin.

“I love you,” he whispered. “And I’d love you so, so much more if you just...were good. If you just let me love you—this is the only way I know how to love you, I don’t know what else to do.” He leaned over and kissed his forehead.

He left Vio on the bed and went back to where Blue was. He needed to have a talk with him, though he had to admit that it was mostly for himself. 

He was sitting down on the floor, his arm still broken and useless. Shadow’d be a liar if he claimed that he had done that for only the reason that it stopped Blue from exiting or fighting back. He had been able to get to Red and Green way too easily and he probably could have knocked Blue out just as easily, but instead, he had wanted to hurt him just a bit more than the others. 

And of course, he had found Erune, staring at him wide-eyed. She was lucky that Vio wanted her to live, or else there’d be a body rotting in the Link’s living room.

It was weird—he’d do anything for Vio, he thought. Except let him go. He loved him too much!

“So, what part about ‘if you lay a hand on him I’ll chop it off,’ confused you?” Shadow asked.

Blue didn’t respond.

“I thought I was pretty clear, I didn’t think I had to dumb it down anymore. You got lucky, though—Vio _begged_ me not to hurt you, he said he’d do _anything_ and he’d let me do anything to him if I just didn’t hurt you. I’d tell you you should thank him, but clearly, I can’t let him come back down here. I kept trying to compromise with him, you know. First, I gave you five minutes alone, then I gave him a chance to fess up and apologize to me by himself but he didn’t, so I wasn’t going to let him be alone with you, but I was going to let him still see you, and then, I thought, ‘Fine, he can go see him, but he can’t talk, there’s things I don’t want him to share,’ so I let him stay down here with you, thinking that of course, you wouldn’t try to come on to him, like, who could possibly be _that_ stupid? Apparently, you.” He was fuming. He tried to remind himself—Vio was his, Vio loved him. He loved Vio. “You only really have yourself to blame over this.”

“You fucking cut Vio’s tongue out, but I can’t touch him?” Blue snorted. “This is probably why Vio’s trying to get away from you.”

“What makes you think that?” Shadow asked. “I think he’s very happy here.”

“It’s Vio—he’s just as stubborn as the rest of us, and he’d never forgive you for what you’ve done to him.”

Shadow blinked. “You hit Red a lot, though? You love him, don’t you?” Blue didn’t respond. “You hit him, but what if I were to bring him here and smack him around a bit—you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

He saw Blue pale. “That’s different—I actually love Red, and I don’t cut his tongue or strangle him. And, I stopped! I got better!”

“What about Green then? You still fight with him, don’t you? What if I were to cut off a finger from him? Maybe a thumb?”

“I’m not sure if you’re trying to prove a point or threaten them.”

“Both. Whatever you do with them, I don’t care, I only care about Vio—and if you don’t want me hurting the others, you won’t lay a finger on Vio. Which, won’t be difficult considering I’m just gonna let you rot in this cell alone, never to see him again.”

Blue breathed deeply. “You,” he said slowly. “Are a fucking psycho.”

“And now you’re wasting my time—I have to go fuck Vio.”

“Good riddance!” Blue shouted after him. 

When he got back, Vio was choking on what he could only assume was the spider he had thrown at him since he didn’t know where else it could be. Momentarily, he felt an urge to help Vio, but he reminded himself Vio couldn’t die. Just suffer. He wasn’t sure if he should get as much entertainment as he did from watching Vio’s reaction when it crawled out of his mouth.

“Oh, Vi...” He got closer and ran a hand through his hair. _You’re so perfect..._ He licked his lips. Every single time he was around Vio, he felt a strong urge to kiss him passionately—he didn’t see the urge going away in the future. 

Vio tried to grab the pen, but Shadow beat him to it. “No, love. I’m not in the mood for a conversation right now.”

Vio’s eyes widened and he tried to grab the pen back. “No,” Shadow said. “I said no. If it’s really important, you can write whatever you need to say in blood.”

Vio mouthed his name and shook his head, still wide-eyed. He tried again.

“How many times do I have to say it, Vi? What could be so important? What do you have to say? Oh, right—you can’t answer me!” Vio tried to grab the pen again—Shadow responded by shoving it in his tights.

Vio’s face flushed and he looked up at Shadow with a facial expression that could only be described as flabbergasted.

“I said no, Vi.” He looked at Vio’s torso and suddenly wanted to dig his fingers into his hipbones.

Vio inhaled through his nose and got closer, sticking a hand down Shadow’s tights.

Shadow chuckled and moaned when Vio touched him in a way he really liked. “Alright, fine, you know what? Make me cum and I’ll give you the pen. You can write to your heart’s content.”

Vio flushed more, but seemed to be ignoring him, intent on finding that pen. It took him a moment to panic when he couldn’t find it, and grab the waistband, pulling it away from Shadow’s hips. “You know if you’re gonna look at my dick, I think I should be able to look at yours.”

Seemingly disgusted, he moved away from him, his face scrunching up. Shadow chuckled and cupped his cheek. “You can keep going, if you want. I’ll give it to you, you just have to give me something else. Why don’t you finish what you started?” He kissed Vio’s nose and sighed.

He leaned away and turned away, grabbing one of his books.

“Yeah, you go ahead and read your book, Vi.”

He tried to think—what was he going to do with Vio now? His Vio...dishonest, unfaithful, traitorous, perfect Vio... He swallowed and looked at Vio, clearly trying to ignore him and focus on his book.

He grabbed the book by the spine and yanked it away from him. “What are you reading, love?”

Vio reached for it back, but Shadow jerked it away again. “You want it back, Vi?”

He risked a nod.

“Well, I want you to quit ignoring me.”

Vio sighed. He looked very frustrated. “Do you want your book back?” He nodded again. “Of course you do, get over here and kiss me. Or I’m not gonna give it back.”

Shadow saw him clench his jaw, grit his teeth and get closer. “Yes, Vi?”

He pressed his lips gently to Shadow’s. Shadow grabbed his hips and held him close, but surprisingly, didn’t get Vio’s mouth to open, didn’t deepen the kiss any more. 

“Good boy,” he said when they parted. “You go read and I’ll leave you alone.”

Vio didn’t respond.

 

Shadow had left at some point, and Vio got curious, but not just curious. He also got closer to the window.

He didn’t see anything but a red sky. No ground, no horizon. He found himself about half-way out of it.

Vio heard the footsteps—then the door flew open, Shadow looking panicked. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Vio just stared at him since he couldn’t speak.

“Get away from there,” he said. There was an edge in his voice, but not one of anger. One of worry, of fear. “Vio. Now.”

He got just a bit closer to the window. 

His eyes widened. “Please...Vio. What are you—“ He looked horrified. “You aren’t...You can’t be...Are you gonna...throw yourself out of the window?”

Vio just stared at him.

“Vio, please, no...I...I’ll give you the pen. I’ll give you a metric fuckton of pens, you can have so many pens. Please, Vio, just...I love you, I love you so much, just get away from the window, get away from the window!”

Vio continued to stare.

“I’ll...If I go get you another pen,” Shadow said. “Will you be here when I come back?” Vio was still silent. “Please...I’ll go get you another pen, just...don’t do anything we’ll regret, okay?”

Vio nodded.

Shadow backed out of the room slowly—then sprinted down the hallway, not bothering to close the door. Vio got off the window ledge, grabbed the piece of paper and got back on. Shadow came back not a moment later with the pen. He tossed it to Vio—he caught it.

“Vio, don’t do this.”

He wrote quickly. “What happens if I do this?” He showed it to Shadow.

He shook his head. “Nothing.” His voice cracked.

“You wouldn’t be freaking out over nothing. If I throw myself out of this window—what happens?” Shadow read it and shook his head. “The only thing that’s freaked you out this much so far is the idea of me leaving you—I think, if I were to fall out of this window—that’d be it. Is that it, Shadow? Do I just die?”

“You...” Shadow looked at the ground. “You’ll leave. You’ll be back in Hyrule, away from me.” His lip quivered. “Vi, _please_ don’t do this.”

He should have jumped right then.

But he didn’t.

“Why are you so afraid of me leaving?”

“You’re...the only thing that keeps me alive, that makes me even feel alive. Sure, I’m conscious, but I’m dead. You...make me feel happy.”

“Do you really think this is happy?” Vio wrote. “You don’t like hurting me, Shadow. I know you don’t. This doesn’t make you happy, it makes you fucking psychotic. You know this is wrong.”

“I don’t care,” Shadow sobbed. “I love you, Vio, I love you so much.”

“You don’t know that.”

“So, what?” He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve. “You’re just gonna jump and leave me here? To die? The others will regain consciousness. They’ll be just fine—I’ll die.”

Vio paused. “I can bring you back.”

Shadow blinked. “How are you gonna do that?”

“...I’ll figure something out.”

“You don’t mean that,” Shadow said. “You’re a fucking liar.”

“I’m not lying. I’ll bring you back—and I’ll actually make you happy. You won’t be like this, whatever this is. You’ll be happy and alive, and you won’t need me for that.”

“If you want me to be happy, you’ll stay.”

Vio shook his head. “You aren’t happy, Shadow. I’m not either. Why should be both suffer here when we have a chance to be happy in Hyrule?”

Shadow took a shuddering breath. “...You can hate me for this,” he said. “For doing this to you. Just go ahead and hate me.”

“I don’t...” Vio swallowed and kept writing. “I love you, Shadow, a lot—but you can’t make me be happy here.”

“I love you, Vivi,” Shadow whispered. “Please...Please don’t leave me, everything _hurts_ when you leave me.”

Vio dropped the pen and watched the paper float on the ground. He leaned backwards—he was falling.

He closed his eyes, still falling.

He opened his eyes when he swore he hit something.

He was staring at the sky, a bright blue, and he was laying on the ground, still without his sword. “Holy shit,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is in sight, people! So, Vio’s back in Hyrule, and he’s promised Shadow something. This next chapter will be the last chapter of Maybe, and it has been so, so much fun writing this, and I really cannot thank y’all enough for reading this far, and I thank all you lovely people who’ve left kudos or have written comments. I can be a bit...weird at times—I like to wrote a lot, it’s how I vent and think and feel. I mostly use fanfiction as a way to get better with my writing for my original works, but I had a lot of fun with this story. Thank you so much for reading—but it’s not over yet! Not only do I have one final chapter that I guess is basically some sort of epilogue, but this work is part of a series, there’s a sequel to Maybe! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


	14. This Is The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now back in Hyrule, Vio tries—and expectedly fails—to find any real answers, but is nonetheless determined to bring Shadow back.

He sprung to his feet and grasped at his throat. “Holy shit,” he repeated. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” The skin on his neck felt smooth—no bruises or anything. Not to mention, he was _talking._ Talking! He had a tongue! “Fuck!” He said, but he felt a grin spread over his face.

He ran home as fast as he could. Red and Green were on the floor, Erune on the couch, staring at him. “Vio!”

He wrapped his arms around her, excited to see her. “Whatever you think I did, I didn’t do that!”

“I figured! Where have you been? They told me...He just...” She shook her head.

“How badly did he hurt you?” Vio asked her, looking her over.

“They just disappeared,” she said. “The wounds. The moment Green started to stir, but he still isn’t exactly u—“

There was a loud thump from above.

“Hold that thought,” Vio said. His heart was pounding—but in a really, really good way. The fear didn’t feel the same, it was different. He ran up stairs. Blue met him halfway.

“What the fuck?!” He shouted at Vio. “What the actual fuck?!”

Vio hugged him tightly. “I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but I’m so glad you’re okay—your arm isn’t even broken anymore, and I’m talking! I have a tongue!”

He heard red groan from down the stairs, his whisper carried well. “Why’s Vio talking about tongues?”

“Beats me,” Erune said. “You guys just passed out! What happened?”

“Something to do with Shadow Link?” Green said. Vio sighed. He had a lot of explaining to do, but he didn’t care! He was alive, talking and—

Shadow came rushing back—violent and angry. His Shadow, in pain, he chose to believe. In so much pain he became very abusive and horrible, but...he could get better, couldn’t he?

He needed help. He was terribly misguided. Maybe he just needed some love. Or maybe Vio was too hopeful, too much of a romantic.

He explained what he could to the others, Erune looked at them all in shock and horror and Vio retreated to his bedroom.

He tried to calm himself down. He shouldn’t be so excited. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around his room—the same way he left it. He was going to need to keep his promise—he just had no idea how to start.

Something was out of place in his bedroom. It finally clicked—there was a hardcover book on his bed he didn’t really own. He flipped to the twelfth page.

_He still dreamed of his love, of his perfect hair and his perfect smile. He was so focused on trying to find someone to fill the void he had left behind, so he fucked basically every dark haired guy he could, and if he found a blond who seemed to look somewhat like him, he dyed his hair. Sometimes, he’d do a bit of surgery on someone, to make them look like him more. But it was never enough. He still remembered all the nights he spent making sweet love to him, he missed the feeling of his dick down his throat—_

The door opened.

Vio slammed the book shut and looked up.

Blue stood in the doorway. “Are we gonna talk about that?”

“I have a feeling I don’t get a choice in this.”

“You don’t really.” He closed the door and sat down beside Vio. Vio was just so happy he was okay—he had grown awfully fond of Blue after their journey—which either played a role in their one night stand or maybe the one night stand played a role in the growing fondness—and the thought of Shadow—a guy Vio was also very fond of—murdering him in a fit of jealousy that just didn’t seem to belong to him just didn’t sit well with him. “What the fuck was all that?”

“Before all this happened—“

“Vio, we all know you fucked Shadow Link,” Blue interrupted. “The fairy saw everything, we know everything, I know you fucked him, and he bragged a lot about fucking you, we all know you’re fucking gay, me especially. Everyone loves your gay ass.”

Vio blinked. “Before all this happened, Erune’s girlfriend talked to me. Poppy, I mean. She said there was a shadow, looking for me and that it meant me harm? I assumed she meant Shadow Link.”

“Was that Shadow Link?”

“I don’t know,” Vio admitted. “Maybe. I think that shadow she was talking about was something else, but I don’t think it’s like...another evil, I think...maybe it’s something inside Shadow? That corrupted him and made him so...horrible.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I threw myself out a window,” Vio admitted, “To escape him. And I promised him I’d bring him back and make him happy.”

There was a moment of silence. “Were you serious?”

“Yes,” he said quietly, then more surely. “Yes. I was. I love him and I know we can help him. Besides, we’re heroes of light or whatever, right? We can save him from whatever darkness is inside of him or something.”

Blue blinked. “I’m gonna have to help you with this, aren’t I?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

“Vio, you’re fucking crazy—are you okay?”

“Maybe. But...I need to do this, Blue. I saw it inside him.”

“What, this shadow Poppy mentioned or...”

“Yes, and...something else. Something good.”

“But aren’t you the one who said you can’t change the person you love?”

Vio sighed. “I don’t think I’m changing him, Blue. I think I’m saving him from whatever he has. I’m not going to just ‘fix’ Shadow, I don’t think, but...I have to help him, you understand that, right?”

Blue nodded. “I do. I hate it, but I do.” He sighed and stretched. “I’ll help him, you stupid bookworm.”

“Thanks, Blue.”

He left the room grumbling, Vio picked up the book again. He could not stop reading—this was the same book he remembered reading before—he had summed it all up to nothing more than porn. It was not just porn, he realized, and it wasn’t just violence.

He stayed in his bedroom for a long time. The book was horrifying and seemed to twist his internal organs into knots and he felt like he was going to be sick, but he could not stop reading. The story followed a guy named Caden still in love with another guy who he killed himself and turning to other people who resembled his love to fill some sort of hole inside him—usually, through sex or violence because he knew they weren’t actually who he was looking for. 

That wasn’t the part of the book that disturbed him.

It was that it was mentioned—basically in passing, casually, as if it didn’t matter, that his dead love had had three other brothers the same age as him, and in Caden’s grief and anger, he had turned to them, expecting them to take up the role his love couldn’t, and because they weren’t actually him, Caden killed them all in horrific ways, leading to the actual plot of the story where Caden tries to bring his lover back from the dead, all while reflecting on love and what it means. Vio looked at the author, determined to find what kind of psycho could enjoy writing shit like this.

She was the same author who wrote his favorite book and who wrote two other books Vio had yet to read. He made a mental note to find those books.

He swallowed and placed the book down, getting to his feet shakily. He felt sick, definitely—had Shadow meant to give this book to him _before_ or was it just a coincidence? Had it been some sort of threat maybe, to get Vio to cooperate with him, disguised as a gift? He seriously wished he knew, he wished he had answers, but he was gonna have to find them himself.

Or maybe he never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is quite a bit shorter than most of my chapters, about one thousand words compared to the chapters that are about five thousand words, and I really hope this doesn’t feel rushed.
> 
> But this is the end of Maybe! After fourteen chapters, we have reached the end of this very twisted, incredibly violent, toxic romance between the two. ...At least until the sequel is posted, which won’t be too long from now.


End file.
